New Jersey Indie

I realized yesterday while doing the Amon Tobin post that I do myself a disservice each time I write one of these posts.  My modus operandi during this blog writing process has been to listen to the specific album on my list and write about it, not bothering to listen to other material (particularly earlier material) from that artist unless I just happened to already like that artist (for instance, Spoon, Bob Dylan or Brad Paisley). By not educating myself on other material my post artist has recorded, I have no basis to compare, no direction to discern, etc.  This lack of further investigation is a disservice to my readers, too, because I cannot provide as effective of a review as I would like.  I am going to do my best to educate myself further.

What sparked this realization (which has really been brewing for a long time but just wasn’t something I wanted to admit right away) was listening to today’s entry from the Wrens, The Meadowlands.  I was listening to the album and reading about the band at the time, and reviewers and writers wrote frequently about their songwriting style on previous records (recorded in the mid- to late-1990s) and how drastically that style had changed with The Meadowlands.  The Wrens went through a lot in between the time they released Secaucus in 1996 and Meadowlands in 2002.

# 196 – The Wrens, The Meadowlands (Metascore = 85)

Many events led to the eventual creation and release of The Meadowlands.  The Wrens released their second full length record, Secaucus, in 1996 on Grass Records; Secaucus was widely praised for being one of the best power pop records of the era, and the band’s popularity grew more and more following its release.  Midway through touring behind the record, though, Grass Records was bought by Alan Meltzer, who wanted to refocus the label towards a more mainstream audience (which he eventually achieved a few years later when the label’s name changed to Wind-Up and released major hits by Creed and Evanescence).  The prize of the label in Meltzer’s eyes (as well as many others) was the Wrens, and he wanted to sign them.  Grass offered the band a very lucrative contract, but the catch was conformity to this new theme of the label.  They also gave them an ultimatum—sign the new contract, or the label will pull all promotion of Secaucus.  The band refused to sign the contract, and the label promptly stopped promoting them.  The band demoed for many labels (including Interscope Records), but none of the talks led to a new deal.  At that point, the members were forced to find full time jobs to support themselves and their families, essentially making the Wrens a weekend and vacation thing.

The buzz around Silver (their first full-length) and Secaucus was about their strong hooks and clever third-person songwriting.  The Wrens also put on an incredible live show, so it is hard to believe that nary a label would sign them.  With six years between records, there is bound to be change, and The Meadowlands documents that change.  The Meadowlands, unlike their previous two records and various EPs, was deeply personal.  By the time of its release, they were all working other jobs, and a couple of the guys had families to support.  The Meadowlands embodies their problems with record labels and dealing with everyday life.

What moved me about The Meadowlands was not so much the music itself as it was the lyrics and the vocals.  Musically the band kept many of the same sounds they had in Secaucus, and the sounds really fit in with some of the music that had been released the same year (Welcome Interstate Managers by Fountains of Wayne, Transatlanticism by Death Cab For Cutie, Yours, Mine & Ours by the Pernice Brothers, to name but a few).  Lyrically, this was a band that had endured failures, rejections, heartbreaks, and other issues in the six years since their last record—maybe not something necessarily new, but the way Charles Bissell and Kevin Whelan sang them, you felt their pain.  My favorite songs off the record are “She Sends Kisses”, “This Boy is Exhausted”, “Faster Gun”, “Per Second Second”, and the album’s best song (in my opinion), “Everyone Choose Sides”, because they all seem to embody the challenges they had encountered.

So, how does this record stack with other records I have heard on my list?  From a critical standpoint, many reviewers loved this record, considering it a power pop masterpiece at the time.  It’s certainly a strong record, but where I lose it is that some of the songs just didn’t move me the way other records have.  The lyrics are so-so in some spots, and in other spots the songs drag.  Still, having heard it, I sort of understand the hype.  These guys went through a lot to get to this point; in some ways it’s amazing they managed to stay together for so long, but that tells me they love what they do, love playing as a band, and that they are going to do what they want to do.  I say good for them.