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Our Brother the Native, "Tooth & Claw"
CocoRosie has spread its seed and this is the result. This trio of musicians try to separate themselves from their obvious influences, but fail at doing so just before putting me to sleep. It's an effort staying awake from beginning to end and not because it's a relaxing listen.
Fat Cat
I'm going to have a child one day and by the age of three it could potentially help me record a very hyped record. It would only sing, perhaps laugh and cry, and maybe shake a few percussive instruments, but it would be enough to meet the aesthetic needs Our Brother the Native and other bands they resemble. Take some minimalist composition, acoustic guitars, a rattle or two, and then toss in lazy, inexpressive vocals for a stew of finely layered boredom.
Tooth & Claw has all of the ingredients necessary to stir up the interest of all the pseudo hippies worshipping at the feet of Animal Collective and everything they do. That, in itself, is enough to wreck the album. The group worked so hard to give the album a free and flowing sound that in the end is nearly falls apart in the attempt to sound earthly or something else ridiculously comparable. I'm not sure if the band thought they could summon the earth mother and win the adoration of the music-buying public by recording a dull album or not, but in the end that seems to be what they've done. Derivative is an old word, but if I could pretend it weren't then I'd say the origin stems from the release of this album in some way.
After a few listens it becomes evident that the guitar (the same guitar used throughout ad nauseum) is pretty in and of itself, but that ultimately it doesn't matter because it never really expresses anything, never stands out on the record. It'd be nice if Our Brother the Native understood dynamics on a level that wasn't confined to the innards of a song because the whole album sounds as bad as Kansas looks flat. Drive across Kansas sometime, in fact, and the way this album sounds will become perfectly clear: it's featureless, annoyingly cute (or tries to be), and devoid of any inspirational features or original concepts across the board.
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