January 31, 2012 Music » Album Review

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CD Review: Brett Netson's Simple Work for the Road 

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The New Black; Release date: Nov. 29, 2011

Brett Netson fronted one of the darkest indie psych-jam bands of the '90s in Caustic Resin. Yet he's better known for his alliance with fellow Boise guitar heroes Built to Spill, who use the same brooding elements to make much more interesting music. Netson's played with BtS for years, but his solo debut suggests he hasn't learned that much about dynamic songwriting in BtS; Simple Work isn't even up to par with Caustic Resin's best.

Saddled with too many plodding tempos and repetitive riffs that too often lead nowhere, most songs here are their own yawning cul de sacs. Opener "Preaching to the Choir" sets the unfortunate tone with a middling beat, weak gang vocals and a glass-jawed bridge; a sample of a preacher stoking fire-and-brimstone hellfire doesn't register the sinister note hoped for either. Similarly, the meant-to-be spooky "Someone Else" isn't, Netson's apocalyptic near-rap over a trudging beat and feedback a march into rote nihilism.

Acoustic-based tracks like "God Is Wrong" and "Existence" fare a little better, recalling the melancholic fare of Mark Lanegan and Mike Johnson (he's played with both). Unfortunately, Netson's reedy vocals are no match for their foghorn baritones, and he comes up short in the inevitable comparisons. Ironically, the best track here is the nearly 17-minute long tectonic slugfest "Lupus," where the band finally sounds energized. Massive riffs, feedback and fuzzed-out effects roil like primordial lava flows while pummeling bass and cymbal explosions pound them into early Sabbath- or Pontiak-like shapes. If only Netson had spread some of this energy around ...
Image credit: Leigh Ann Hines

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