Review Summary: They almost did it.
Streetlight Manifesto’s 2003 release Everything Goes Numb is arguably the best ska-punk album ever. How could you possibly follow that up?
You release Somewhere In The Between.
Musically,
Somewhere In The Between is an improvement over
Everything Goes Numb. The band seems to genuinely have fun doing what they do, and they bring a level of technicality and musicianship to their music that isn’t present in a lot of ska music today. The horn players are articulate and powerful, and their parts are well arranged. For most ska bands I’ve heard (admittedly, not that many) the lowest instrument they have is a trombone or a tenor saxophone. From a compositional standpoint, that makes a lot of sense, because if you were to throw in something lower, like a baritone saxophone, you would have to take into account the bass guitar, which is already the foundation of the low end of the band. A poorly handled baritone saxophone part could mix poorly with the bass part, mucking up the low end and sounding like crap. Whoever is in charge of arranging the horn parts for Streetlight Manifesto does an excellent job of utilizing the instrument. They take advantage of the middle-upper range of the instrument, using for emphasis of a certain point in the music, or harmonizing with the other instruments, especially the trombone.
While Mike Brown , the baritone sax player, has the thankless job of holding down the winds section, the rest of the members seem to be constantly locked in a game of “Who Can Do The Best Solo”. Jim Conti, the tenor saxophonist, belts out a John Coltrane-esque solo during “We Will Fall Together”, and Mike Soprano’s short but smooth trombone solo during “Down, Down, Down, To Mephisto’s Café are two of the high points of the album. They even do a trade off solo during “Somewhere In The Between”, only with Conti on the alto sax. Matt Stewart, the trumpet player, doesn’t have any solos as memorable as Conti’s or Soprano’s, but when the horn section is playing a certain part in unison such as the first horn break in “One Foot On The Gas, One Foot In The Grave”, he is the easiest to hear, blaring soaring high notes over the rest of the band.
The horn section also works excellently as a unit as well. All the horn riffs, (for lack of a better term) such as the catchy game-show-theme intro to “Somewhere In the Between” and the staccato opening of “The Receiving End Of It All” are excellent. At points during the album, it sounds like they have a whole marching band on the stage with them. “Would You Be Impressed” shows how well they can play in the background without getting in the way of the vocals.
The rhythm section of Streetlight Manifesto is one of the most standard yet most solid I’ve ever heard. Pete McCullough, the bassist, is skilled and his bass playing holds up songs like “Forty Days” and “What a Wicked Gang Are We”, but the bass lines all follow the same typical ska walking-bass pattern and show little variation. Chris Thatcher, the drummer who was an untamed, unhinged, destructive beast on
Everything Goes Numb is significantly less balls-out crazy on this album. While the newfound restraint works on some of the tracks, sometimes I miss the blazing fills at 190 beats per minute. The guitar playing, courtesy of Tomas Kalnoky, has exponentially improved from the last album. He breaks out for a couple solos this time, and the one in “Forty Days” is particularly impressive. He still can do that insanely fast upstroke rhythm sound really well, as well as the typical punk thrash-sound, which he brings to even heavier levels during “Watch It Crash”
As with anything associated with him, Tomas Kalnoky's songwriting is one of the main high points of Streetlight Manifesto’s music. He is known for his rapid fire lyrics and extremely catchy choruses. On
Somewhere in the Between,, there are still plenty of those, but on more of the songs, he takes a successful shot at full blown singing, and he does a great job.
Once again, Tomas Kalnoky set equally amazing lyrics to the already stellar music. However, the subjects of his songs aren't the most original in concept. Every lyrical concept commonly known to be in punk music such as the "Don't-Kill-Yourself Song", the "It's-All-My-Fault Song" and the perennial "*** YOU" Song appear, along with many other kinds of beaten-and-bruised song subjects on this album, as well as the bands' previous release, Everything Goes Numb and Catch-22's 1998 release,
Keasbey Nights. (which Kalnoky wrote the lyrics for) What sets Kalnoky apart from the average Joe Punksinger is the cleverness, detail and originality he brings to these concepts. It's like watching a movie you love for the 12th time, only this time with subtitles, and now you can understand the lines that were whispered or drowned out by background noise. Everything is clearer and makes more sense.
Ska-punk is often maligned for being repetitive, with the albums following the same format, and also for having somewhat goofy lyrics. Streetlight Manifesto successfully smashes the goofy-lyrics stereotype, but still kid of falls into the latter, especially in the bass playing department. However, I do think that the technicality of the horn parts and solos keep it more interesting and original than your typical ska band. Another complaint is the constant breakneck pace of this album.
Everything Goes Numb. had “A Moment Of Silence” broke up the album very well, and might have been the best song on that album. Every song on
Somewhere In The Between , however slow it starts out it ends up going fast again.
Though improved in some regards,
Somewhere In The Between is not as varied, nor as enjoyable as Streetlight Manifesto’s previous outing. However, it is an excellent album in its own right, and worth purchasing.
Recommended
Forty Days
We Will Fall Together
Down Down Down To Mephisto's Cafe
