Evangelicals The Evening Descends

[Dead Oceans; 2008]

Rating: 3.5/5

Styles: indie pop, chamber pop
Others: The Flaming Lips, The Shins

As the name of the band suggests, the feeling baked into this record is uplifting in a way that frustrates the title’s promise of darkness. Exuberant, drunken sounds travel in currents behind a soft vocal delivery, and well-crafted harmonies emerge from a relentless melodic movement. Following the difficult path worn by modern vanguards The Flaming Lips, Evangelicals have clawed their way out of Oklahoma and into a state of national musical relevance. Norman, Oklahoma isn’t exactly Williamsburg, and a name like Evangelicals only strengthens a linkage with the un-hip connotations of the Bible Belt.

The Evening Descends, the second full-length by Evangelicals, is full of druggy, fuzzy, laid-back sonics and background vocals that layer the record and create a world of lush atmospherics. Several of the tracks, most notably “Skeleton Man” and “Bellawood,” are brimming with haunting elements that make good on the promise of early horror cinema portended by the ominous title and spooky album art. “Bellawood” opens with a vocal sample that might have been lifted from a monster flick and closes with singer Josh Jones chanting, “Strange things keep happening all around my head/ Strange things keep happening,” and there’s even a moment of maniacal laughter recalling Dark Side of the Moon’s seminal treatment of insanity. (It might not be coincidental that both records also promise journeys into darkness.)

The record’s highpoint is “How Do You Sleep?,” a tight pop number bubbling with lilting instrumentation and inspired vocals that build into howling bursts of “How do you get to sleep?” “Party Crashin’” is another standout, with psychedelic swirls transitioning into electronic waves and Jones’ upbeat vocals holding all the pieces together.

The Evening Descends finishes with a delicate piano stroke followed by the familiar chirp of crickets, building upon the record’s frequent evocation of airy, open space. Of course, nothing on this record is ever entirely peaceful, regardless of the innumerable precious harmonies and delicate melodies that define Evangelicals’ sound; and so the calming hum of crickets is promptly overlaid with a foreboding drone that distills the record’s evolving tension between beauty and discomfort.

The one knock on this record is that it just isn’t very dynamic, as too many of the tracks fail to strike with the impact of truly great efforts. There are exceptions, of course, and the drumming on the fantastic “Skeleton Man” propels the track with a driving momentum that’s too often missing on The Evening Descends.

1. The Evening Descends
2. Midnight Vignette
3. Skeleton Man
4. Stoned Again
5. Party Crashin’
6. Snowflakes
7. How Do You Sleep?
8. Bellawood
9. Paperback Suicide
10. Here in the Deadlights
11. Bloodstream

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