BEATROUTE MAGAZINE AB EDITION JANUARY 2019

38 | JANUARY 2019 • BEATROUTE
Altameda
Time Hasn’t Changed You
Pheromone Recordings
Poised for a breakout year, Altameda’s sophomore
full-length sees the band dialing in a
sound that has a lot of appeal. There’s a certain
objective taste that hears rock n’ roll as good
songs with a standard instrumental lineup of
guitar, keys, bass, and drums, and Time Hasn’t
Changed You churns with elements of all the
bands that made that the default setting for
rock music, whether The Heartbreakers, The
Band or The Rolling Stones.
Kicking off with the greasy guitar and keys
on “Bowling Green,” Altameda presents a more
driving vibe than their 2016 debut, Dirty Rain.
“Losing Sleep” punches in with punk rock energy,
a blast of rave-up giddiness with a whoohoo
refrain that’s hooky as hell, along with tuneful
gang vocals running throughout the cut. It’s a
likely shaker, the kind of number that kicks your
heels up for you. “Rolling Back To You” lives in
some wild space near Springsteen’s Born To Run,
and you get the feeling the band’s well-aware of
the vibe they’re laying down with the line “And
I wanna tell you, just how I feel, I ain’t tryin’ to
reinvent the wheel.” The title track comes in
near the end of the record, with a ’70s AM radio
feel, while “Waiting On The Weather” goes back
to spazzy rock n’ roll energy before closing out
the record.
Altameda’s put the work in to get the sound
of classic rock n’ roll just right, and there’s a lot
to like about Time Hasn’t Changed You.
• Mike Dunn
Beirut
Gallipoli
4AD
Beirut frontman, Zach Condon comes out cymbals
crashing with Beirut’s fifth studio album.
Gallipoli was recorded in Southern Italy and
receives its name from an Italian town Condon
and his bandmates visited during recording.
Often times mesmerizing, Gallipoli more
closely resembles Beirut’s first two albums,
Gulag Orkestar and The Flying Cup rather than
Condon’s more recent work. This resemblance
is in part due to the large presence of the organ
on which Condon wrote all three albums but
also the return to the often-incomprehensible
lyrical style heard in his earlier work. An effective
return to Beirut’s Balkan folk-inspired, breakthrough
sound, Gallipoli distinguishes itself with
eccentric, screeching organ on the instrumental
“On Mainau Island” and the wonderfully
wordless melodies in “Varieties of Exile.” True
to Beirut fashion, the quirky instrumental and
intricate Gallipoli has the ability to transport
the listener to a different period in time.
Gallipoli features a marvelous medley of brass
instruments, organ and Condon’s hypnotizing
melancholy vocals.
Along with the release of the single, “Gallipoli,”
Condon offers this fairy-tale-like reflection of
how the album’s first single came to be,
“We stumbled into a medieval-fortressed
island town of Gallipoli one night and followed
a brass band procession fronted by priests
carrying a statue of the town’s saint through the
winding narrow streets behind what seemed like
the entire town. The next day I wrote the song I
ended up calling ‘Gallipoli’ entirely in one sitting,
pausing only to eat.”
• Sheena Antonios
Cherry Glazerr
Stuffed & Ready
Secretly Canadian
Upon first listen it sounded like Cherry Glazerr
had a more mature sound on Stuffed & Ready.
Having gone on as a three piece after losing
synth player Sasami Ashworth (due to her working
on her solo career), it seemed like the extra
space in the mix was met kindly by the remaining
musicians. However, on following visits the
album becomes less courageous and more so a
typical festival-tailored indie rock piece aiming
to please an angsty teenage audience. Songs
often being too reminiscent of too many other
poppy “punk” rockers from the last five years.
Formulated rhythms and predictable pauses
and drops keep the listener from being engaged
or shocked. On top of the characterless instrumentation,
the lyrics lack depth. Although they
are sung melodically by Clementine Creevy’s undeniably
beautiful voice, they struggle to engage
the listener into the story being told.
Although there are songs like album opener,
“Ohio,” where Cherry Glazerr are undeniably on
point, or “Daddi,” where the lyrics do have some
backbone and subtle aggressiveness, overall,
even though Creevy has said an incredible
amount of time was spent creating it, Stuffed &
Ready comes across rushed & uninspired.
• Cole Young
The Dandy Warhols
Why You So Crazy
Dine Alone
Something happens to people, and families, as
they age that pushes them to evolve or get left
behind. For a band entering their 25th year in
the biz, we should expect nothing less. They’ve
done, seen, and survived things. With Pete Holmström
and Brent DeBoer exploring solo projects
(Pete Intl Airport & Immigrant Union, respectively),
one might expect the family to drift
apart, and lose the fire of their early years. And
yet the band still shows up when dinner is ready.
They hit familiar territory with “Terraform”, a
bass driven dance number. Zia McCabe gets her
time to rock out with “Highlife”, a stompy ol’
country tune. Single “Be Alright” boom-clacks
its way into your ear just fine, if just missing that
certain something. “Thee Elegant Bum” again