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Recording:
  And Take It With a Grain of Salt  
 
Artist:
  An Angle  
 
Label:
  Drive-thru Records  
 
Release Date:
 

9.November.2005

 
 
Reviewed by:
  K-tron  
         
 
Rating:
   
         
 
Review:
 

Sacramento, California based An Angle might as well simply adapt their set to fit into a 2:00 AM time slot. The album is so somber and depressing. The singer sounds like Connor Oberst of Bright Eyes, with the emphasized lyrics voiced by Isaac Brock from Modest Mouse. The music is basically the same. The album uses a noted formula: one solo acoustic song then one rocking song, and the same pattern repeats within songs.

That said, there is actually a lot here. I like the album. The lyrics are fairly depressing, and the tone is dark. Like me. There is a song called Self Medicate. This is obviously not the usual Drive-thru Records material. My only concern is that the welfare of the band as a whole is on the rocks. As far as I'm aware, the band still exists (per the website), but I worry. The band, it seems, is touching on some very ugly subjects, and perhaps might be a little too much to digest.

This is a low budget album with a really big sound. There are some tracks with multi instrumentation (accordion, mandolin, oboe…) and I think that the band will be a hit, especially in the indie rock club venue circuit. I also think that the sound is a little too big, at times, for such a premise. It's rowdy at times, and then it's completely intimate and controlled at others.

I usually blow off bipolar albums such as this as confused and purposefully "difficult". More often then not, there are too many distractions on these albums to ignore. It's the melancholy that punches through on these recordings that really give And Take It With a Grain of Salt life. Surprising duets pop up through the album, as well as interesting sound experimentation and effects. This gives the recording scale, and projects the overall sound of the album into a much larger musical scope than other albums in this category.

If you like minimalist singer songwriter rock like Bright Eyes, this is for you. In fact, I would basically say this is simply another slightly different version of Bright Eyes. It's good, and perhaps even more accessible. And you would be much more likely to see An Angle live in a small club.

 
         
 
Related Links:
 

The Band's website: http://www.ananglemusic.com
Everyone's gotta have The MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/ananglemusic
Label website: http://www.drivethrurecords.com/

 
         

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