There are some bands where the the songwriter is so prolific that I almost wish that they'd take a break. I am not naming names but a reader of this site might be able to figure out who I'm talking about. John Andrew Frederick is not one of those songwriters. I await each new missive from his The Black Watch eagerly. My anticipation has been rewarded with Weird Rooms, one of his most adventurous servings in ages.
Weird Rooms is, more than any recent Black Watch offering, concerned with mood and texture. The words here are almost secondary, and in fact, there's even a song called "Gobbledegook" [see new video for said song from Shane Mckenzie below] which seems a wink from John Andrew Frederick to the listener. That said, the guy can write both a winning hook and a clever turn of phrase. But the success of the Weird Rooms material hinges less on lyrics and more on the lilt of the melody in the title song, to use one example. The song positively blossoms, achieving a sort of R.E.M.-circa "Cuyahoga"-vibe that is entirely winning. Similarly, the chiming "Swallowed" soars on a riff that Wire Train would have killed for when they briefly burned as American jangle-rock hopefuls. John Andrew Frederick loves his Brit influences but ultimately is heir to a rich legacy in this country of a songwriters who translated those points of inspiration into a uniquely Yankee form of alt-rock.
What makes Weird Rooms stand on the shoulders of some recent Black Watch releases is the presence of "All Out" and "You'll Get Over It", two of the best things I've heard from John Andrew Frederick and crew in ages. I'll go one further and say that "You'll Get Over It" rivals work from The Clientele at their peak. It's a composition that hits at that achingly beautiful vibe that a few bands reach for but rarely achieve. The instrumentation, precise throughout, provides shades of meaning and mood. And with this one and "All Out", The Black Watch seem to occupy the sort of rarefied space few bands have entered since the first few releases from The Auteurs. And the good news is that Frederick doesn't seem quite as misanthropic as the young Luke Haines.
I rave about a lot of music here, and I've raved about a lot of Black Watch albums, but Weird Rooms really is a beautiful record. It feels like a modest turning point for John Andrew Frederick. The tunes are sharp and concise, despite the lush, world-weary vibe that permeates a few of the better ones on this disc. It sounds as if his world is falling apart in "Would You Were Here", but it's a kind of beautiful dissolution.
Weird Rooms by The Black Watch is out on Friday from ATOM Records.
[Photo: Sara Minsavage-Bullock]