A sound that puts me in a very mopey mood, I'm no stranger to the feel Twelve Rooms. It's that gentle sort of melancholy that isn't cathartic, but stately. Not wretched, but eloquent. It makes me feel like the miserable graceless troglodyte that I surely am. I wanted to like Belle and Sebastian, but the only song of theirs I can truly say I love is "Slow Graffiti" form the Acid House soundtrack. Listening to them, for me, is like pining for a different body. One that looks so skinny it could fold in on itself. I start wishing my hair were flatter and trendier and before I know it I'm in the full throes of the blandest, weak-kneedest sort of pretension one could imagine. Palaxy Tracks jangles and crash cymbals all that out from time to time (hard to mope to hard with yr toes tapping), but a lot of the time they just remind me of just how lacking in stateliness or eloquence I am.
It's not their fault, of course. But as far as I'm concerned, weepy, mope music is just that. It doesn't matter how literate, how novel, how Scottish -- I can barely listen to The Bends any more because of how nauseous its consistent whining makes me. The same can be said for Palaxy Tracks; even though they are a solid sounding band with a confident, cemented kind of delivery, it's really just more morose music. Even if its lyrics are evocative and stirring in their narratives, the forlorn patina simply drags the listener down after awhile. There is an ethereal edge to Sigur Ros' equally wet-eyed () -- as well as an air of mystery and cathartic release that's noticeably absent on Twelve Rooms.
There is a rich bevy of instrumentation on this record. The singer's voice is quite sweet, despite its somewhat bland predictability tone-wise. I love me some sad songs, but I feel like this album belies a snooty, resigned sort of moperock that I simply can't relate to. As I've said before, the instrumentation intermittently picks up the pace. But the tone is always quietly, comfortably miserable. If you like Black Heart Procession or something similarly chained to its sad-sad-sad-can-I-get-any-more-sad-guess-not formula... Me, I can't tell if I'm hanging my head in shame or nodding off.
1. Speech With Animals
2. Grey Snake
3. The Clarion Way
4. Up My Sleeve
5. Camera
6. Lamplighter
7. The Criminal Mind
8. Seems So Long Ago, Nancy
9. Me & You & Him
10. Legs On The Ladder
11. Dead Language
12. Twelve Rooms
More about: Palaxy Tracks
