Nebraska - The Great Divide
Artist profile:
Nebraska
Release Date: 28/01/08
Label: Angry Liberal Records
Rating: *****
Following last year’s self-released full length album ‘Path to the Silent Country’ – which was as widely acclaimed in the undergound press as it was rudely ignored everywhere else - Welsh-Londoner songwriting duo Michael Hall and Ben Todd have stripped back their gloriously epic sound to let some of their raw, tough-edged live flavour seep through with this incredibly biting, joyous ode to defiance.
From the chiming opening chords this has ‘anthem’ stamped all over it, and, as the tragi-comic verses give way to a heartfelt, heartwrenchingly powerful chorus, the listener can’t help but be carried away on layers of swooning vocal, skyscraping guitar and insistent rhythm.
‘The first against the wall will always be the last to know / we will not waste our hearts debating which thinker to quote’ and a multitude of other equally quotable lyrics are delivered with such intensity and honesty you can’t help but think this may be the moment that sees Nebraska rise to the dizzy heights they so often threaten to reach.
B-side ‘A Burial’ is an equally well-crafted beast, this time leaning on the military drumbeats of Jarrod Storm and rolling bass of Ben Stack and may be the only ‘ballad’ this side of Nick Cave to entice and horrify in equal measure. It’s a bit chilling.
With a download only freebie in the shape of the power-pop-punk of ‘Underwater Congregation’ that mawls early REM by way of Trail of Dead, it seems safe to say that this is the first absolute stone-cold classic, must-have single of 2008.
Jack James Solero
Nebraska Myspace
Buy Nebraska CDs | Buy Nebraska mp3s | Buy Nebraska Tickets | Buy Nebraska Merch
Release Date: 28/01/08
Label: Angry Liberal Records
Rating: *****
Following last year’s self-released full length album ‘Path to the Silent Country’ – which was as widely acclaimed in the undergound press as it was rudely ignored everywhere else - Welsh-Londoner songwriting duo Michael Hall and Ben Todd have stripped back their gloriously epic sound to let some of their raw, tough-edged live flavour seep through with this incredibly biting, joyous ode to defiance.
From the chiming opening chords this has ‘anthem’ stamped all over it, and, as the tragi-comic verses give way to a heartfelt, heartwrenchingly powerful chorus, the listener can’t help but be carried away on layers of swooning vocal, skyscraping guitar and insistent rhythm.
‘The first against the wall will always be the last to know / we will not waste our hearts debating which thinker to quote’ and a multitude of other equally quotable lyrics are delivered with such intensity and honesty you can’t help but think this may be the moment that sees Nebraska rise to the dizzy heights they so often threaten to reach.
B-side ‘A Burial’ is an equally well-crafted beast, this time leaning on the military drumbeats of Jarrod Storm and rolling bass of Ben Stack and may be the only ‘ballad’ this side of Nick Cave to entice and horrify in equal measure. It’s a bit chilling.
With a download only freebie in the shape of the power-pop-punk of ‘Underwater Congregation’ that mawls early REM by way of Trail of Dead, it seems safe to say that this is the first absolute stone-cold classic, must-have single of 2008.
Jack James Solero
Nebraska Myspace
Buy Nebraska CDs | Buy Nebraska mp3s | Buy Nebraska Tickets | Buy Nebraska Merch
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