keepers - 4
keeper avg .363
The opening title song****, which kicks off appropriately enough with a kick-driven riff, builds deliberately with simple droning Eno- and Velvet Underground-esque chords, just the way the U2 showed 'em, though they are soon countered by a looser, sloppier third guitar for some ass-kicking punctuation. "Black And White Town"***** and "Sky Starts Falling" kick it the northern soul way, via "Town Called Malice", while "Almost Forgot Myself"**** pulls back considerably, and includes some fine echo-ey guitar that comes in the chorus. The pleasing western shuffle meets "Where The Streets Have No Name" of "Walk In Fire"**** is accompanied by more great guitar work. "Snowden" threatens to be sucked to space by soaring violins, as used heavily by Mercury Rev, until countered by a blast of crunchy guitar bridge, while a cavernous reverb to trippy "The Storm". "One Of These Days" and "Someday Soon" have cool parts, though the former falls apart at its non-choruses, while the latter has that "I Want You She's So Heavy" two-songs jammed together structure I'm not a fan of. Of the remaining tracks, "Shadows Of Salford" is a sparse Lennon-esque piano ballad, while the pretty closer "Ambition" is a another celebration of reverb and delay.
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