Alt-J is back on top with their newest project, The Dream. Complete with everything you’d expect in an Alt-J album, the English rock outfit is trying to branch out as well, taking a 12-track long stroll through a wonderfully odd path that is teeming with potential. A few interesting sound bites and a cornucopia of instrumentation dot the trees and bushes along this path and are truly just as sweet as they look. Five years removed from their junior project Relaxer, the band has had plenty of time to frolic and revisit their formula from the beginning of the decade. What has come from such a length of contemplation is a wonderful marrying of oddities and whimsical simplicity in sound that the band has identified themselves with from those years past. Such a cohesive bond between the weird and the contemporary is what makes this album the best full-length project since their debut An Awesome Wave, and arguably their best. If you walk down the same path, with the same open-mindedness as the rest of the band, I’m sure you’ll find yourself in the same boat as me…
Bearing the fruit of the odd is the opening track “Bane”. Exploring ideas of youthful libido and gluttony never tasted so good when capped with a soundbite of a soda commercial. This opening track pulls so well with the feeling of openness and self-reflection, it feels like it should be experienced in a grand concert hall. The captain of this ship however is “U&ME”, the much more streamlined, and simplistic but no less biting primary single for the LP. Not lost on this contemporary chart is the band’s knack for influential vocal harmonies and juxtaposed dirty guitar riffs to remind you just who is in charge on this ride. “Hard Drive Gold” hits just as hard vocally, with Joe Newman’s range of vocal emotion on full display between verses, amplified by exponential layering during the anthem-like cry of the chorus. The song to follow, “Happier When You’re Gone”, is just as sultry as the theme is simple. The simplicity of this track’s overarching idea makes way for exploration into the instrumentation I talked about at the beginning, with intermittent use of true and synth percussion, and attentive collaboration of acoustics such as the guitar, violin, viola, and cello, culminating in a sweet treat with such sour lyrics. The story of “The Actor” is both a linear story and a cautionary tale, telling the tale of actor John Belushi’s death amidst heavy drug use and a personal battle with depression. Besides a few name drops for both John and his drug of choice, cocaine, the tactful guitar licks to open almost every verse and an up-beat façade represents a deep sympathy and awareness of the unacknowledged strife that public figures went through in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Newman and his keyboardist Gus Unger-Hamilton find even more time to reflect in the next track, “Get Better”. Beginning as an instrument-less track (barring a quiet but lovely cry from Newman’s guitar), the band once again finds love for orchestral string swells near the end, capping this passionate, reflexive ballad with what I consider a perfectly selected soundbite of a woman simply asking the listener to “get better”. The band ditches their strung up orchestral backing for a grimy technicolor display of electronic sounds in the twin tracks “Chicago” and “Philadelphia”. However, both songs are still sent off with beautiful piano and violin outro choruses respectively that are to die for. The British outfit plays with some American flare with the bluesy jailbird “Walk a Mile”, truly showing their dedication to the broadening of horizons. The band then plants their flag with a short, Eagles Live-esque vocal chorale titled “Delta”, named after the band’s true title (Alt+J is the keyboard shortcut for the Delta symbol on the original Macintosh). Following their war cry, Alt-J continues to play with the absurd in the aptly titled “Losing My Mind”. Sincere and succinct repetition and the use of the German language in the band’s writing on this track should tell you enough about just how outside of the box the trio is thinking. Finally, to wrap up this stroll is “Powder” a sun-bleached, chill guitar demonstration that begs you kick your feet up and take life a little less seriously after finishing this album. In TV Girl like fashion, soundbites of an entire one-sided conversation of a love struck romantic makes an appropriate send off to this perfectly weird and pretty 50 minute mix of sounds.
Alt-J has proven themselves to be formidable in the alternative world time and time again, but this has mostly been through their mastering of the EP formula. The full-length side has been lacking as of late (and by late, I mean over a decade), but The Dream is attempting to change that, and round out the band into and even bigger alternative powerhouse. In this attempt, I’m sure it can be found among alternative and indie purists that the band is trying new sounds for all the wrong reasons, but I beg to differ. I think it only adds to the charm of their novel, and in my opinion, successful attempt at climbing back on top of the alternative LP summit. Climbing is hard, and if you’ve found a better way to top, then by all means, start climbing…
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