Reviews
Music Review: Santa - My Bones
Disclaimer: I’ve seen Santa live twice, and each night counted among those I consider the best of my life. I’m also friends on Facebook with the lead singer. I’m predisposed to like their new EP, My Bones, because a) the personal connotations I associate with their music are tied to a period of my life when I was happier than I’ve ever been, and b) I know that they’re good guys. I say this upfront because I’m about to praise something that I typically wouldn’t; it’s not that the music on My Bones is bad (it’s very, very good). It’s just that this is the type of stuff I usually wouldn’t give a fair shot. This is the first time in Strong Words history that we’ve actually received a promo copy of a record, and it’s a good thing, too - being obligated to review it meant that I had to spin it incessantly for a couple of weeks, and it was during this time that I, shockingly, grew to love this band.
It’s difficult to describe exactly what Santa are doing here - right off the bat, on leadoff track “The Crumble,” there’s a faint granola vibe, a certain jamminess. But when the chorus kicks in, everything shifts; the dudes in Santa succeed, where so many other like-minded bands have failed, by actually finding a compelling melody. The song stretches out for about five minutes (which is typical for the band - at six songs, the EP clocks in at over thirty minutes), but never drags or loses focus. For everybody scared of college bands that play straight-forward rock n roll at keggers and bars: relax. There’s no noodling here. Things get even better with the second song, “Over,” which gets sweeter without sacrificing firepower. The lyrics also showcase lead singer Stanton McConnell’s neatest tricks: he gets specific in the verses, painting pictures of everyday drudgery, but lets the chorus open up into achingly earnest melancholy: “If I had a better picture of empty / I’d take you down in a hurry / Our love was meant to last.”
“Hashish,” the third track, is probably the catchiest on the record, but it’s what comes next that warrants the most attention: “Nightsong” is a beautiful ballad that, somehow, opens with the line “I’d love to meet her in the square among all the elders” and proceeds to not suck. At all. In fact, I’d like to pay Santa probably the highest compliment I can think of: “Nightsong” sounds like one of those really good ballads Rush used to write in the eighties, before they got all grizzled; the Renaissance Fair vibe of the lyrics meshes perfectly with the gentle accompaniment the rest of the band lends, and it makes for one of the most interesting songs you’ll hear all year. It’s actually shocking to hear something so gentle and sweetly sad - “Nightsong” is archaic in the best possible sense, the kind of thing most bands don’t even try anymore.
The album wraps up with “Gasolines” and “Bottles and Bracelets,” hooky and well-played both. My Bones is nothing if not consistent; the guys have obviously worked really hard to make these songs perfect. Usually after listening to a record as much as I’ve listened to this one, I have some suggestions for what could’ve been altered to make the experience more pleasurable, but I really can’t think of any way to improve what Santa have done. My Bones is thrillingly pleasant; without any real peaks or valleys, the record rolls on in its singularly mellow way, accumulating meaning and weight the farther it goes. I highly recommend that you find a copy of My Bones and spend some serious time with it.
[For more info on Santa, check out their MySpace page at www.myspace.com/santamusic. My Bones is currently available on iTunes.]
Discussion
6 comments for “Music Review: Santa - My Bones”
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Yeah I thought these guys were really good. The song we used at the end of Episode 40 was stuck in my head. I re-listened to it just to hear that song the other day.
Helpful (pretentious?) advice: Don’t review records track by track. It’s pedestrian and it ruins the surprise in actually listening to the record. If you take a look at most (or all) decent arts publications, they don’t do this.
also santa = rad
I wouldn’t say your advice is necessarily pretentious. Just condescending and misguided.
Generally I will reference one or two specific songs in a review. HOWEVER: I did this as a favor to the band’s publicist, and thus wrote it up like a fifteen year old kid on Amazon. I generally prefer to focus on an album’s place within the greater context of music / pop culture, but as this is a six-song EP by a college band, there’s not much wiggle room re: history and ideology.
I see where you’re coming from, but I also think you’re wrong. I kind of want to tell you to read more music reviews, but at the same time, I don’t want to push the idea that there’s any “right” way to talk about music. In this particular instance, I couldn’t do much but describe the songs and how they made me feel - which, if you think about it, isn’t such a bad jumping off point for a discussion about music.
Also, Outis, Adam discussed on his review for the new Say Anthing album about how he doesn’t normally get into track-by-track analysis and he was called out for THAT too. It can’t be both ways and it’s up to the writer to decide which style of review befits the material being reviewed.
Reviewing music is for homos. You sirs, are gay.
/flame