The Top 10 Albums of 2007: #7
7) “Somewhere in the Between”, by Streetlight Manifesto
As some of you may or may not know, ska is one of my musical weaknesses. For instance, if I were, for instance, some sort of superhero (which I’m not…), then ska would be my Kryptonite, so to speak. But that doesn’t mean I’m choosing this album because of some stupid soft spot in my heart. Quite the opposite, Streetlight Manifesto has been the target of much animosity from me for the last few years. I didn’t and never will hate them; Tomas and the gang were everything I knew for basically half of my high school days. But I began to be disenchanted with them in 2006, when (even though they had new material) they re-released “Keasbey Nights”—Catch 22’s ska-shattering debut. For those of you who aren’t too familiar with ska, Keasbey is one of the most well-known albums out there, put out by Tomas Kalnoky and the rest of Catch 22. After this, he promptly left Catch 22 to form Streetlight Manifesto and Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution. BotAR put out a mediocre EP and then went on hiatus while Kalnoky started working with Streetlight. SM put out an amazing debut, “Everything Goes Numb”, and then quickly petered off. Kalnoky, I don’t give a shit whether or not you’re a perfectionist, but five years between albums is just ridiculous! But somehow, I couldn’t walk away, and I got my hands on “Somewhere in the Between” as soon as it was released. And I listened to it, expecting a total shitty copout sophomore album, because no matter how much I love Streetlight, I really didn’t expect anything mind-blowing this time around. And now it’s number seven out of the top ten. Oops?
This album is not quite perfection, but it’s still really good, and more than a pleasing sophomore effort (the “Keasbey” re-release doesn’t count, and it never will). The most striking thing about the album for me was its lyrics. Kalnoky has always had a morbid streak in him, and “Everything Goes Numb” and “Keasbey Nights” both had death as a major theme. But these were different. Everything Goes Numb was a high schooler’s wet dream; a pseudo-intellectual album focusing on the human perception of death at the point of dying, and an anti-suicidal message. Not going to lie, it’s a great album with a great message, but at the end of it, I kept thinking to myself that Kalnoky could do so much better if he expanded his lyrical topics. Tom, I’m so glad you didn’t. “Somewhere in the Between” still talks highly about death, but from a philosophical standpoint looking at the relationship between life and death. Songs like ‘Would You Be Impressed?’ and the title track both ask what will happen to a person when they die. The past tense Kalnoky uses in ‘One Foot on the Gas, One Foot in the Grave’ is simply chilling, and ‘The Receiving End of it All’, although it is a bit pretentious, makes me nod my head in solemn agreement every time I listen to it (“You beg and plead, but no one here can save you/Why should we try when we can't quite save ourselves?”). There’s no doubt that this album is lyrically sound, and Kalnoky’s singing style, although changed, is still that unique, raspy half-scream. The horns all do their part to keep the melodies going, and the harmonies and solos scattered through every song show how talented all the members of SM are (as if Chris Thatcher didn’t show off his amazing drumming skills in “Keasbey Nights”).
The negatives on this album, although fairly small, are not beyond noting. The album has a distinctly weak closer, ‘What a Wicked Gang We Are’. From the title and everything else on the album, I expected a near-epic song that would keep the album fresh in your mind for a long time. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and ‘Somewhere in the Between’ or ‘The Receiving End of it All’ would have been much better album closers. Also, the solos and harmonies, although amazing, get annoying. Yes Tomas, you are a music major who loves to work with theory and other techniques in your music. We get it, now get some new tricks! A lot of the harmonies are either thirds or fifths, and as a music person myself, it’s rather disappointing that a guy of his caliber doesn’t try writing more complicated horn parts. They’re not displeasing, just really similar to people who are big on music theory. The final thing that bothered me about this album is the format of all the songs is despairingly similar. Songs in Somewhere in the Between come in three formats, all of which find their variation in the introduction. The songs either have a catchy drum or guitar hook, an extended horn solo, or Kalnoky singing in an actual singing voice under soft guitar. This is then followed by typical verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus progression, with instrumental solos in the bridge. The songs are great, but after ten tracks it seems that the gang could have put some more thought into the structure of the album. Nevertheless, the album has a great feel, intelligent lyrics, and incredibly talented musicians; it would have to be an amazing music year for this album not to be on a ‘Best Of’ list like this.
Recommended Listening: “Down, Down, Down to Mephisto’s Café”, “One Foot on the Gas, One Foot in the Grave”, “Somewhere in the Between”, “The Receiving End of it All”.
