By Doug Freeman
Published on February 19, 2009 at 1:41am
Since releasing their debut EP, The Meat of the Fruit, last summer, the Sour Notes have quickly become local favorites, and with good reason. Principle Note Jared Boulanger crafts beautiful and questioning melodies that are rife with a direct pop angst. Yet that angst is sweetly plied, never over-bearing or melodramatic, and the quartet continually upends its pop stylings with unexpected samples and keyboard bursts that manage to keep the songs fascinating through repeated listenings, even as the short eight song album is over much too quickly.
There is an undeniable Death Cab for Cutie earnestness to many of the songs, bolstered by Boulanger’s Ben Gibbard-nodding vocals that are youthful and slightly sentimental. There is also a sense of the New Year’s hazy sound in the guitar tones and kind of sad suburban angst that seems to define the Kadane Brothers’ musings. While those bands best describe the Sour Notes overall aesthetic, Received in Bitterness also proves that they have much more to their music, however.
Opener “Psychological Thriller” kicks off with a skuzzed up barrage of guitars and synths that is altogether unexpected before settling into a more mellow space with Boulanger crooning “All that I love, I pretend you are not.” The willful denial of the song reawakens throughout the album, and in fact reiterates what Boulanger told us about the album’s title in their recent Sound Off: “The title comes from being in situations where you might accept or be vulnerable to things happening to you, and letting them happen, even though you might just be tricking yourself knowingly.” Yet the Sour Notes also seem to revel in that kind of conscious obliviousness, creating a disillusioned tension throughout.
The piano bop and garage pop of “Holy Terror” may be the most divergent of the tracks, giving the album an early lift before “Is It Happening?” swirls into a more stricken pop territory with subdued horns and a crescendoeing falsetto vocal push. As Boulanger extends “I don’t think I’ll ever learn,” that hint of the New Year comes full to the fore. Like their stunning cover of Jawbreaker’s “Accident Prone,” the song “It’s Just a Cut…” unravels the sad, youthful emo-tint (in a good way) with steady aggressive riffs and a pop-surging chorus. And “Double Negative” carries the kind of emotional heft anchoring Blake Schwarzenbach’s songs and, though much more plaintive in it’s piano-based balladry, actually wouldn’t sound out of place being played by a band like Jets to Brazil.
Even as those type of tunes gesture toward a sound that could easily break outside of Austin, there are equally compelling moments on Received in Bitterness that are surprising and strange. “Your Pretty Sphinx Voice” samples French lines from Jean-Luc Godard’s “Alphaville” over trippy ambience that eventually pummels a driving beat into a softly swooning heartbreak and reverb-hollowed well. It’s a surreal intro, one that seems to drift into another plane of stoned loneliness, and though at first somewhat disruptive within the overall album as it’s dreamy centerpiece, it becomes a mesmerizing suture between it’s two halves and the most interesting song in relation to the whole.
The female vocals that sparsely harmonize throughout the album also offer a perfect shading to Boulanger’s bared emotionalism, a calm counterpoint that actually seems to hearken what is going on outside of the solipsistic view of Boulanger’s disillusioned conceptions of relationships and the world around him. It also makes sense, then, that the penultimate song, “What In the World?,” becomes a plea of “will you wake up?” and the ripping from respite becomes a disorienting and hash cataclysm that melts into the quick closing warp of backward loops on “…Then Who Does?” The female voice faintly calling “If I’d have known…” brings us back to the surface, but the dreamscape that the Sour Notes have unveiled make you immediately want to crawl back into their beautifully subconscious world, as hurt and confused as it may be.
Websites:
www.thesournotes.com
Myspace
By Jim Bricker
Published on February 14, 2009 at 1:41am
When I first heard the Sour Notes’ Received in Bitterness, it somehow seemed fresh and familiar at once; the songs evoked memories of someone or something, but I couldn’t quite pin down who or what. I listened to the album in its entirety several more times over the following weeks, determined to locate the source of my unexpected nostalgia. Finally, earlier today it hit me: The Sour Notes remind me, at least at times, of Pizzicato Five, a Japanese pop group I was obsessed with for a couple of years in college. This certainly didn’t help clear up my puzzlement initially – what could P5 possibly have in common with an indie quartet from Austin? I love learning new things: P5 are credited with leading the shibuya-kei movement in Tokyo in the 90s; shibuya-kei is an offshoot of yé-yé…which in turn heavily influences the Sour Notes’ musical style, and might explain some of the stylistic similarities that caught my attention. Neato, eh? Now I really want P5 to reunite and play this song. Anyway, moving on…
As on Fruit, Bitterness finds frontman Jared Boulanger posing many questions in his lyrics, contributing to an overall theme of uncertainty throughout the album. It would seem that Boulanger (or the character portrayed in his songs, anyway) is unsure of his rightful place in the world and situations surrounding him. This results in many memorable, wistful lyrics (some of my faves: “All that I lost I pretend you have found” from “Psychological Thriller”; “You sleep around with the images you can’t let go” from “It’s Just a Cut”; “If our beyond has come and gone, will you take the blame for the games we played?” from “Double Negative”). As a whole, Bitterness reveals a more polished side of the Sour Notes: a shinier, smoother surface that features better composed, more deftly arranged pieces.
Album opener – and personal favorite – “Psychological Thriller” serves well in its role as an introduction to the rest of the album, drawing listeners in with its ethereal, plaintive vocals layered over a driving bass line and delicate yet foreboding bells. Lead single “Is It Happening?” features gleaming guitar riffs and Boulanger’s characteristic questioning of the ways of the heart; his wistfully pessimistic attitude is captured at the end of this song, as he mournfully admits, “I don’t think I’ll ever learn.”
“Your Pretty Sphinx Voice,” by far the longest song on the mostly sub-3:30 album, is also Bitterness‘ most unique. Ghostly samples from Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville joined by several distinct movements and tempo changes make this track multi-textured and unlike any other on Bitterness. Another particularly bright spot on the album is actually one of its most subdued. During “Double Negative,” the band employs minimal instrumentation, an effective choice that keeps the focus on Boulanger’s melancholy lyrics. It cuts me a little every time I hear Boulanger sadly muse, “I thought our troubles would end when and if I traveled through them,” immediately followed by those two simple alternating notes on the keys that are somehow heartbreaking. The album ends with a track that’s more of a coda than a standalone song – clocking in at only 1:16, it features fuzzy, almost Ratatat-esque electronic sounds and one simple lyric: “If I don’t know…” The song’s title – “…Then Who Does?” – finishes the thought and provides a succinct summary of Bitterness‘ lyrical theme.
Received in Bitterness Track List
1. Psychological Thriller
2. Holy Terror
3. Is It Happening?
4. Your Pretty Sphinx Voice
5. It’s Just a Cut…
6. Double Negative
7. What in the World?
8. …Then Who Does?
By Darcie Stevens
Published on February 13, 2009 at 1:41am
In one year, Jared Boulanger’s Sour Notes formed, released 2008’s inspired The Meat of the Fruit EP, toured, recorded this first LP, and then went back into his home studio for more recording. We should all be so productive. The Austin via Houston quartet’s Received in Bitterness isn’t perfect – a better mix would help – but it’s a celebration of Boulanger’s boyish vocals, pop experimentalism, and a rhythm section that understands its role. Opener “Psychological Thriller” hits with a Secret Machines blast melting into tinkling keys, but xylophone/horn jam “Is It Happening?” is the band’s trademark, a fully formed storyline highlighted by euphoric guitar flourishes. “Your Pretty Sphinx Voice” pulls French New Wave into the Digital Age, and the slow, moody “Double Negative” begs for lighters. The Sour Notes have taken classic songwriting and seasoned it with the innocence of being 16 again.
By Laurent Hrybyk
Published on February 9, 2009 at 1:41am
As we all seem to know now, Austin, Texas has some sort of magical soil in being home to so many awesome bands. Add The Sour Notes to the list of Austin stand outs. They are relatively new to the world (they just formed in 2008) but already have released a beautiful swaying debut The Meat Of The Fruit and an atmospheric rough around the edges stunner of an album Received In Bitterness. The latter album just came out on New Years Day and I’m completely wrapped up in it right now (I’m terribly sick right now, but this album is cutting the edge off of it). The Sour Notes have that clever songwriting we come to expect from Austin bands. They also have a knack for piling on the echoes in certain spaces to give their music a spacious Animal Collective charm to it. On the other hand lead singer Jared Paul Boulanger’s voice is so smooth and star-like I wouldn’t be surprised to hear some Fleet Foxes comparisons. Oh and they even have another album due out at the end of the year! Talk about productive. Don’t sleep on these guys.
