Silkworm
It'll Be Cool
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Silkworm
It'll Be Cool
Touch & Go, 2004
RiYL: Pavement, Shellac, The Band |
While the band's sparse trio lineup has made in the past references both oblique and overt to '60s acts like Neil Young, the Stones, and, on more recent records with pianist Brett Grossman, the Faces, It'll Be Cool is Silkworm's most Dylan-influenced album. The opening track, indeed, is entitled "Don't Look Back," in quotes, as if to invite the comparison.
The Dylan influence shows through in the structure of seven very different songs, which for the most part employ few changes and fewer chords. These songs have more verses and not as many formal guitar solos than is the norm for the 'Worm. On the opener and beyond, Tim Midgett's chunky basslines often carry the verse by themselves, while Andy Cohen develops different ideas on guitar each time through. Michael Dahlquist is characteristically solid on drums, and Grossman does a good job in changing roles as accompanist, colorist, and featured player.
"Penalty Box" opens with fuzzed synth and concludes with a zany, rapid-fire organ solo. The ironically laid-back "Something Hyper" coasts on Grossman's block chords and a duet between Tim and Evil Robot Michael.
The album features similarly ultra-low-budget packaging as the band's previous album, Italian Platinum. It also shows in the lyrics that Silkworm is not taking its music as deadly seriously as they did on, say, Firewater. On songs such as "Insomnia," Cohen, who tends to write both Silkworm's best and worst songs, shows a laziness with his vocals that also marred the lackluster Blueblood. "Don't Look Back," on the other hand, is a fantastic Midgett song, propulsive and relatable, and Andy's lyric to "Penalty Box" is a clever response to his bandmate's earlier "Slave Wages."
"Xian Undertaker" is an interesting Tim song that aims for folky, mock-spiritual resonance ("there's a heat wave comin'"); Grossman's performance on the keys helps a lot. The album ends with a pair of keepers, the busy, Developer-esque "The Operative" and a beautiful instrumental, "His Mark Replies." It might sound like the band tuning up, but it works for me.
For whatever reason -- Tim and Andy's admittedly not perfect singing voices, impossibly bad luck with labels, the drummer's eternally uneven beard -- Silkworm has reached a phase in its career where commercial success is a dead issue. The band is making albums for itself and its friends at this point. It'll Be Cool is aptly titled; the album has an atmosphere of nonchalance that's really its only weak point. Lifestyle, by comparison, seems urgent; the band's greater stakes in the songs were passed on to the listener.
Cool, like Italian Platinum, was probably not rehearsed much before it was recorded. It's likely these songs will only be played live a handful of times, or not at all. Not to say Silkworm has lost faith in itself, but it's safe to say that diminished expectations going in to these albums have led to releases increasingly lacking in luster. Silkworm is too good of a band, and has been playing together too long (even Grossman has been in the fold for four albums now) to make a really bad record, but the feeling that the career-defining Lifestyle is as good as it's going to get only grows with each only-OK follow-up.
Still, It'll Be Cool comes highly recommended to anyone who's ever heard a Silkworm record and liked it. Even fans of the old, four-piece, Joel R.L. Phelps lineup will like the denser, darker tracks like "Don't Look Back" and "Insomnia." For the rest of you -- the majority of you, I'm afraid -- please go buy Lifestyle. You won't be sorry.
MARK T.R. DONOHUE | Mark T.R. Donohue is a prolific freelance writer whose areas of expertise include Rockies baseball, video games, genre television, English soccer, and pub rock. He lives in Colorado, where he cultivates the largest and creepiest private collection of Alyson Hannigan memorabilia in the Mountain West.