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The early birthing pains of O’ Brother saw Michael Martens, Johnny Dang, and his brother Anton Dang joined in making quiet climbs from graceful notes , a struck pose to an older guitar focused indie-rock. But as is the duty of all freshman bands members fade off and new friends, like Tanner Merritt and Aaron Wamack, joined establishing a new vision, and accidentally stumbling into the dark 2009 debut EP The Death of Day.
“The music we like to put together is dark Read more on Last.fm
Disillusion is O’Brother’s second full length album, and while there are a lot of the same sonic components that you can trace all the way back to The Death of Day, Disillusion is like nothing they’ve done before. O’Brother has always been great at mortaring together great, huge walls of sound, and they do so again here, every now and then, but the soundscape is made up of layers now, like a very thickly woven tapestry versus an indomitable mass of force.
Vocally, the addition of long-time friend of the band, Jordan McGhin, has also lent itself well to the layered approach. Tanner’s voice before was usually a baritone growl, gravelly in release, but here, with the help of Jordan, the sound is ethereal, wispy, creepy. It fits the subject matter perfectly. Of course, there are times when Tanner rips out a guttural bellow every now and then – it wouldn’t be O’Brother if he didn’t, right?
Lyrically, I thought it was hit or miss. Some songs were terrifically well-written, while others were prone to cliches that made me wince. This doesn’t detract from the album at all, and the subject matter tackled throughout the nearly hour long record is given its due respect, awe, and fear.
O’Brother has certainly hit a high note with this album, and the growth and maturity they’ve shown in the last few years from Garden Window to Disillusion is astounding. You may not be prepared for this album if you try and compare it to their previous ones, but give it the time it demands, and you’ll be thankful you did.