Never quite at home on the overtly Christian record label
Tooth & Nail
,
the Danielson Famile
moved over to the Indiana-based indie label
Secretly Canadian
for their fifth release,
Fetch the Compass Kids
.
, with its roster of mostly
punk
and
emo
bands, never seemed to know what to do with
Danielson
's quirky, largely unclassifiable
pop
, and the band suffered from poor support as a result -- despite winning accolades from such high-profile publications as
Spin
and the
Village Voice
. But most of the attention showered on
up to this release focused on the band's eccentricities -- the odd rhythm shifts, the
girl group
harmonies, the otherworldly lyrics, and, above all,
Daniel Smith
's voice, which at times sounds like a pre-pubescent
Frank Black
-- overlooking the quality of
Smith
's songcraft. With
the Famile
also broke away from longtime producer/collaborator
Kramer
(who worked on their previous three outings) and enlisted the ubiquitous
Steve Albini
to work behind the boards. And the result is an album far more accessible than anything put out previously by the band. The unpredictability and general weirdness is still fully intact -- with banjos, falsetto harmonies, toy piano, and marching singsong-y tempos strewn about -- but it doesn't overshadow the songs themselves. Lyrically,
is a loose concept album about finding tranquility in a fast-paced world, and the Christian concept of forgiveness, as on previous
albums, plays a prominent role here. But whereas
came off as a mystical seer of visions on previous efforts, here that element is toned down, and much of the album is spent free of allegory and symbol in favor of the direct and literal (although there are plenty of times when this is not true, particularly on songs like
"Fathom the Nine Fruits Pie"
"Good News for the Puss Pickers."
) This approach comes as a refreshing change after the challenging
Tri-Danielson
albums, and although it's far from easily accessible,
provides a good introduction to the music of
Danielson Famile
. But, as a word of warning, all preconceived notions of what "Christian bands" sound like should be checked at the door. ~ Jason Nickey