There’s a reason you don’t hear too much about difficult fourth album syndrome, and it’s because in most cases, a band’s first three records just aren’t special enough to lead them to this dilemma.
Austin rockers White Denim, on the other hand, have released three critically-revered but largely overlooked LPs since 2007’s Workout Holiday and while musically, they’ve got one big-ass chasm to fill, commercially, there’s little distance to fall.
Still, there was a problem. D was completed in six weeks, but Downtown Records couldn’t hear a ‘single’. When the foursome submitted 15 additional tracks for consideration, the label picked blissed-out psyche rock number ‘Drug’, which the band ended up having to rewrite five times.
Remarkably, the resulting cut is distinctly White Denim – showy fingerwork, a lilting melody, complex rhythms, the only obvious change being James Petralli’s vocals, which have gone from raged and gasping on 2009’s Fits, to mellow and tuneful.
Remarkably, D doesn’t sound like an album plagued by label interference. ‘Is And Is And Is’ is downright trippy and the dizzy flute riffs on ‘River To Consider’ are wildly experimental by anyone’s standards. ‘Bess St.’ is about as far away from a smash hit as you can get, all jolting guitars and airy grooves, crooned over freak-out percussion.
Downtown were right to worry that there aren’t enough singles on D – there’s nothing half as potent as prog belter ‘I Start To Run’ or the fiercely quirky ‘Don’t Look That Way At It’ on here. But then, the soundscape is jam-packed with artists teetering on the pop precipice, waiting for their ‘Hey Ya!’ or ‘Hotel California’ or ‘Since U Been Gone’ to land in their lap. Judging by the magical mess on album number four, White Denim’s all-consuming goal is representing the colourful noise that’s going on in their heads. And right now, that noise is clever, sumptuous and uncompromised.