Gentleman Auction House Alphabet Graveyard by: Thomas Mendelovits Mon:03-Nov-08 Label: Emergency Umbrella Year: 2008 WB rating 78 out of 100

While only superficially reminiscent of the Montreal band’s dimly-lit melodrama, a record like Alphabet Graveyard sort of puts to rest the question whether a modern-classic type band like the Arcade Fire could possibly already have a legacy. It’s not that the St. Louis septet Gentleman Auction House are cringingly derivative of the indie-rock behemoths, it’s just that when you hear this kind of stuff you are inevitably lead to think of the big-band indie sound so prevalent these days – an aesthetic as best captained by Win Butler and his crew. However, for all its generic tendencies – which take in Broken Social Scene-esque shoegaze moods, the shouty singalongs of Port O’Brien, Stars-like boy/girl vocals and a lead singer predominantly recalling the anguished tone of Conor Oberst – Gentleman Auction House succeed where other such acts (recent releases from Bodies of Water and The Uglysuit come to mind) fail. With a world-beating succinctness and vitality, Alphabet Graveyard matches its grand intent with consistently surprising pop smarts.   

Alphabet Graveyard begins with the most striking feature of the Gentleman Auction House sound; the confronting, often-shouted vocals of Eric Enger. While the shouting is laid on thick, ‘ABCDEFGraveyard’ could be the perfect deal breaker for the band. What appears as an annoying, ear-catching gimmick at first is sold by some savvy Jackson 5 guitars, the sheer elation in Enger’s voice (even when screaming) and some harmonies with co-vocalist Kiley Kozel. Indeed, throughout Alphabet Graveyard these touches bring the focus from Enger’s voice, which, while it begs listening, could prove a one-dimensional instrument after time. The guy is a strong presence, sure, but somewhat of another overwrought indie ego-maniac. Indeed, more often than not, it’s where Engel’s presence is offset (or perhaps augmented), that Gentleman Auction House really shine. ‘We Used to Dream About Bridges’ is another glorious pop moment and features two huge choruses: one has Enger spitting, but the other, more touching, has him in cohort with Kozel. Across Alphabet Graveyard, Kozel proves the perfect foil to Enger’s anguish: in putting a dichotomous spin on his gendered woe-is-me exclamations, pretty moments are made out of potentially turgid source material.

At its best, then, Alphabet Graveyard recalls the manic exuberance of 60s pop as much as it does the contemporary indie to which it all too obviously relates to most strongly. Where the worst tracks (‘Good Behaviour’, ‘A Good Son’) don’t surpass a Stars-like claggy cutesy-ness, occasionally Gentleman Auction House do manage to transcend the sounds of now. When this occurs, the band is capable of delivering some of the year’s most unfettered, joyous pop. ‘Call It Casual’ is a perfectly formed exercise in hooks and tension: the combination of bubbly r n’ b piano underpinning the song and a subtle connection between verse, pre-chorus and chorus ingeniously keeps things at a high. A song such as ‘Call It Casual’ is so melodic and so rhythmic it makes the bland lyrics a defunct factor and, like with the best pop, the depths of despair gouged at in the delivery of such direct heartbroken musings could only be successfully broached in so upbeat a manner. On these best tracks, much is owed to the drumming of Ryan Adams (could he be one and the same?), who channels Hal Blaine and hard-rock minimalism all at once. Sometimes, this proves camp, but Adams does well in tying things down. The stabbing organ solo, cowbell, and falsetto vocals (about “megaphones”, no less) of ‘I Sleep in a Bed of Scissor Arms’ could be way too much, but Adams’ keeps things on a groovy even keel.

To invoke an old gem of lazy criticism, Alphabet Graveyard won’t change your life. Enger perhaps has just a bit too little to say and, in yelling it, sounds too much like everyone else. For all that, the canny musicianship, which in the hands of Gentleman Auction House, is fed into precise, catchy arrangements, makes their debut a consistently fun listen. In the end, sometimes it’s great to just hear people putting it on the line. And for all its derivations, passion is one thing not lacking on Alphabet Graveyard.