It took more than a little for me to give these guys a chance. For one, they are part of the inexplicable wave of bands with “Delta” in their name that has just recently crashed to shore. I already reviewed one of them (Delta Rae) two weeks back, and I thought the chances of two of them hitting the mark were pretty low. Second, I saw these guys at Lolla back in 2012 and was decidedly apathetic towards their set. Well, actually, I didn’t see them at all. The band I saw was really called Rogue Wave, and through some sort of heat induced brain fart I led myself to believe that I was seeing a band called Delta Spirit. The fact that the band probably mentioned their name at least twenty times from the stage just goes to show how much I cared. Ironically, it was another one of these sorts of false perceptions that rescued my false perception of Delta Spirit from my dark recess of mental indifference. While doing my weekly Monday roundup of new music for the work week ahead, I decided to check out a band whom Lightning 100 has been heavily promoting lately. In reality, this band is called the “Delta Saints,” but the name I searched instead was “Delta Spirit,” a group I had also heard mentioned on Lightning 100. I’m glad I did make this mistake, because as it turns out, Delta Spirit is the better of the two bands by far. In fact, as it turns out, Delta Spirit is the better of the vast majority of their contemporaries, and are making a strong pull for the title of “My favorite new band of 2012.”
Why the (over?)enthusiasm? Possibly, it’s because Delta Spirit seamlessly includes elements of nearly every genre at their musical table, but manages to avoid sounding like a buffet. Possibly, it’s because out of the their three studio albums, there’s not a single song I don’t like, and only one or two that didn’t remain glued to the inside of my head after only a few listens. More likely, though, it’s because these guys just rock, in the plain old fashioned sense of the word. No, there’s no 1,000 watt power-chords or epic vocal gymnastics, there’s just loads of songs that are often that rare mix of infectious, anthemic, and honest, and they’re bound together by a sound that’s familiar but also entirely new.
Sure, but what do they actually sound like? In a fashion similar to one time folksters turned modern-rock heroes My Morning Jacket, they departed from a very folk oriented center and have since ventured into wilder territory. 2007’s Ode to Sunshine is full of acoustic driven ballads with melodies that almost sound like “Dylan sings the Beatles.” The bouncy “Tomorrow Goes Away” literally sounds like it could have been a lost song from the land of Lennon and McCartney, and “People, Turn Around” is practically a homage to 60's social activism ballads, complete with splatterings of harmonica. On the almost ragtime hook of “Trashcan,” however, you can hear the band wanting to branch out into more unfamiliar territory, and this they begin to accomplish more effectively on their next effort, “History from Below.” The album is much less, well, sunshine-y than “Ode to Sunshine,” and the heavier use of blue notes and sonic texturing effectively create a wickedly unsettling ambience. Standout tracks on the album are the passionate steamroller of a song “Bushwick Blues” and the pensive “Salt in the Wound,” though their take on a popular Irish blessing (the very same one that Notre Dame is using in their television advertisements) in “Devil Knows You’re Dead” is also a winner. Nothing comes close, however, the the perfectly executed “White Table,” which is without a doubt my favorite Delta Spirit song. Think of an ominous, creeping version of Cream’s similarly named bluesy classic “White Room” and you’ve got the basic idea. It’s everything Delta Rae’s “Bottom of the River” (a song I lambasted a few posts back) tries to be but fails, and it accomplishes this without any cheap chain banging gimmicks.
Then there’s the new album. According to their official bio on deltaspirit.net:
When it came time to record Delta Spirit’s third album, the band members knew one thing: It was time to shake off the stylistic labels that have shadowed them since they formed in San Diego, CA, in 2005. Though lyricists Matt Vasquez and Kelly Winrich were grateful for the warm reviews that their previous albums Ode To Sunshine (2008) and History From Below (2010) received, they were perplexed at being called “rootsy Americana” or “twangy folk.” In their eyes, Delta Spirit has always been a thoroughly modern rock band, and, with their self-titled new album, they set out to prove it.
I don’t know who writes these web-page bios, but I really wish they’d find someone else to do it. I have yet to come across one that doesn’t read like a personal ad: “Band looking for fans, just got out of a long term relationship with a label, used to be into indie rock but hoping to get more experimental with incorporating electronic elements lately....” All that when all that really matters is the picture. In any case, the “Americana” and “folk” labels should hardly have been perplexing; their first album was about as “thoroughly modern rock” as Chinese Democracy was a Guns N’ Roses album. The new album, however, is undoubtedly “modern rock,” though it is modern rock very firmly anchored in Delta Spirit’s folksy roots. This is not a bad thing at all. In fact, it’s the farthest thing from a bad thing. What Delta Spirit’s third, self titled album does is take the same sort of rock solid melodies that “Ode to Sunshine” was built on and buff them up with the same sort of slick production we heard on “History from Below,” and the the result is even greater than both already great parts. In the now ubiquitous format for modern rock that gained mass acceptance with Kings of Leon, the verses are all drum n‘ bass thumps and the choruses unleash deluges of washy guitar, and this works amazingly well for Delta Spitit. The centerpiece of the album, California, which plays like a more radio friendly version of The National’s “Bloodbuzz Ohio,” is a perfect emissary that is sure to attract loads of new listeners. Like most of my favorite songs, it has surprisingly few words and an “Ooooooo” Chorus, but still manages to be incredibly heartbreaking. Other standouts on the album include “Idaho,” and “Yamaha,” which sounds like it narrowly missed the cut on the new The Killers album.
In classic fashion, I just missed these guys on their stop in Nashville at Live on the Green. If you happen to be in Columbus, Ohio on December 9 (and I know some of you), check them out, you won’t be disappointed. Because Amazon.com just voted “California” the best song of 2012, and Amazon never disappoints.
Rating: 9/10
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