I can distinctly remember a few long, grey winter afternoons laying on my living room floor in Patterson, NY, listening to records while trying to keep warm with that ever elusive electric heat. I would put on the headphones of my faithful Sony Discman and listen to Damien Jurado’s Where Shall You Take Me?, Songs: Ohia’s Didn’t It Rain, or Even Johansen’s Quiet and Still. After a few listens to Theodore’s latest release, Hold You Like a Lover, I’m sure that if I had the record back then it would have undoubtedly been in the heaviest of rotations. It’s safe to say that this album comes highly recommended.
2008’s heartbreaking Defeated, TN effectively backed up the claims from various local music columns/blogs who hail Theodore as one Saint Louis’ most promising bands. Their latest release, however, shows that the band is finding an original way to present their rustic, experimental sound in a way that’s dynamic, emotional, and ultimately rewarding.
In the same way filmmakers may choose to shoot a film only using natural light, I feel that Theodore have found success in making excellent aesthetic decisions. Just revel in how it sounds: there’s nothing like hearing accomplished musicians locking in together in a live setting, but when it comes time to make a studio recording, some of that natural heat can be lost in the process. Records like the aforementioned Didn’t It Rain found a way to duplicate that feeling with live production, and Theodore uses a similar production value in a way that effectively enhances the recording.
On the opening song “I Won’t Be Stranger”, the band gives itself some space with nearly two minutes of it’s 4 without any vocals (it almost feels like opening titles), and there’s a tangible definition to the tones of the plucked banjo and brushed drums. When the vocals begin to pick up on the song, you feel the air brush across the microphone when he backs away to let the vocals go. On “Half Pint” (my favorite track from the record), you can hear the squeeze of the accordion, the sound of the keys that’s palpable. It’s not lush in the way you might expect, but what they accomplish is framing the songs of guilt, redemption, and vulnerability in a vérité style.
With what would be considered ”standard” traditional music flourishes like banjo, accordion, harmonica, gorgeous, distinctive lap steel (reminiscent of Quiet and Still), horns and otherworldly harmonies warmly augment Justin Kinkel-Schuster’s superb songwriting and vocals. The way that they do this, though, is far from traditional. With a sense of experimentation that seems to veil a fierce undercurrent, they find a way to use those “standards” in a way that’s both unpredictable and accessible. Take “Evergreen”, for instance: With a slight Dixieland strut in the horn arrangement, the song takes a slight curve with the warble of the musical saw that sounds like it could’ve come from a 50’s sci-fi TV program. It fits comfortably into the song though, as it dances around the vocals as the song fades out. This is no one man show, either: Theodore is exemplary in highlighting how each member’s musical contribution is absolutely essential.
Like Damien Jurado (an influence on Kinkel-Schuester’s songwriting), Theodore also have a way with emotional catharsis (Okkervil River comes to mind as well). The altered sound of a harmonica gradually expands over the standout track “Death’s Head”, and the song leads to a slow dissolve into an atmosphere that grows more cerebral and violent over it’s 6 minutes. White noise begins to progressively envelop and consume the song as the lyrics “Hold you like a lover ’til the morning comes” are intoned repeatedly before they’re overtaken, and as this is just one of the many examples that will remind that you’ve felt this before, but not quite like this. Whereas many could just recycle the sound of Will Oldham or Band of Horses to much success, it warms my heart to see that there are still artists like Theodore who are finding new ways to push the boundaries of what’s come before. This is a document of their struggle and, do believe, they leave blood on the acetate.