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Listening to Start Here, the stunning new full-length
from Austin-based five piece, The Gloria Record, it's
safe to say, the band has fully realized all the potential
their eponymous 1998 debut E.P. promised—and then some. Start
Here, is an ambitious recording, over two years in the
making—and trust me, it shows. TGR’s sound has evolved tenfold
and Start Here is the manifestation of that growth.
Not only is it arguably the band's finest record to date,
a career defining masterpiece, if you will; it is perhaps
the best record of 2002, thus far. The befitting title itself
suggests—albeit unwittingly—that longtime TGR fans, newcomers
and detractors alike, dispense with any predisposition they
may have held about the band's previous efforts and well,
start here.
Appropriately, the sprawling, ten-track, sonic-soiree begins
with the title track. As the click of a metronome introduces
the song, Ben Houtman’s expansive yet plaintive synth
playing takes center stage and accompanies Chris Simpson
(guitar/vocals) as he succinctly delivers the album’s
manifesto: Lose yourself, you're young and you've got time/It's
simple then; start here and move forward/You'll figure it
out eventually, or not/Either way, you'll have company.
While, it’s evident TGR has undergone a massive overhaul
of their sound, thankfully, they haven’t forsaken their trademark
segues. As the synth lines of “Start Here” slowly fade out,
the track seamlessly segues into the manic, drumming precision
of Brian Malone and the sweeping guitar lines
of Brian Hubbard on "Good Morning Providence." In what
is presumably a documentation of Simpson's frustrations
in making the record, he sings: Good morning providence,
we’ve got a situation here/ I’m in the belly of a whale and
haven’t seen the sun for days/I’m cut and paste inside this
tune/Good morning providence, the chorus is a wreck, so mind
your head and bless this mess...while the rest of the
band intricately weaves in and out of his phrasing.
“Cinema Air”, opens with Hubbard in the drivers seat, with
guitar tone reminiscent of the grittier tracks on R.E.M.’s
Monster, before being pushed way down in the mix to
make way for more of Houtman’s piano meanderings. While the
layered orchestration of this new record is simply amazing,
it’s Simpson’s self-depreciating, somewhat cynical lyrics
that once again steal the show.
Please tell the whole
world I am here to be their hero, with the perfect body
and straight teeth/ Strings swelling every time I blink,
with the perfect body and straight teeth and strings swelling
every time I blink/ On the big screen with my big dreams,
‘cause you know I am the drama king. – Excerpt
from "Cinema Air "
If you haven’t already gathered by now, the most noticeable
difference, aside from keyboard-driven lush orchestration
of this record and its predecessors, is Simpson’s lyrical
forthrightness. While Simpson has always been a masterful
lyricist, since his days in Mineral, his lyrics this
time around seem less esoteric (unless the songs on the old
record were about you) and more direct. The only time on the
entire record that you’re reminded he’s still the same affable
guy who wrote such memorable heartfelt songs as, “MD” and
“ForIvadell,” is during the opening lines of “I Was Born In
Omaha,” an ode to being, well, born in Omaha, of all things.
The track begins with Simpson’s voice accompanied solely by
an acoustic guitar and sounds like classic TGR we all know
and love. However, by the time the second verse rolls around,
the track is given the full TGR treatment and you’re also
reminded that TGR is all grown up now. Moreover, listening
to the next track, “Ascension Dream,” I can hardly fathom
any other band pulling off a song about hitting a deer and
making it sound even remotely believable. However, TGR does
just that, without coming off as being even the slightest
bit corny.
Pull the flesh over those bones and rise, ‘cause you’re
not supposed to lie here in the middle of the road, in the
middle of the night/stand up and breathe in again and run
along now to the other side, cause your friends are standing
by./Tell them I'm sorry that I ever learned to drive. —
Excerpt from "Ascension Dream"
Bottom line: if it’s visceral, thinking-man's rock
you seek, you’ve come to the right place. Start Here
is TGR’s most mature and best sounding (hats off to Saddle
Creek svengali Mike Mogis, for the production) record
to date. The lull between touring in support of 2000’s A
Lull In Traffic and writing/recording Start Here
obviously served the band well, as the songs had time to simmer
and evolve on their own. Even though the arrangements are
seemingly complex at times, all of the players leave room
for one another and never step on each others toes, leaving
you with the sense this record was a collaborative and well
thought out effort.
On a scale of rock bands who are oft compared to “the
world’s most important band”: If one is Paloalto and ten is
Muse, Start Here rates an eleven: Remy Zero.
— Rothroc
Track List:
01. Start Here
02. Good Morning, Providence
03. Cinema Air
04. I Was Born in Omaha
05. Ascension Dream
06. The Overpass
07. My Funeral Party
08. The Immovable Motorist
09. Salvation Army
10. Ambulance
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