Havalina Rail Co.
America
Reviewed by J. Edward Keyes
While some bands are content to languish within familiar constraints until they collapse under their own weight, Havalina Rail Co. rebuilds themselves from scratch with each release. On America, the band's fourth record, the wagons head West, mining early American music for inspiration.
The California sextet sounds a good deal more relaxed than they did on the chilly Russian Lullabies. Where that release pondered weighty existential matters amidst angular arrangements and gravelly vocals, America settles for simple campfire storytelling. The bulk of the compositions are paeans to the land itself ("Mississippi River," "American Skies," "Let's Not Forget Hawaii"), personifying the countryside in the grand tradition of the early pioneers. Though it purports to reflect the music of the entire country, America is hayseed territory, a kitschy patchwork of the Steinbeckian West done up with fiddles and banjos. Save for a track which allegorically likens a bullfrog to the Nazarene (not one of the album's finer moments), Boris comes from across the sea/ brings his milk to you & me/ with farm fresh goodness & a pinch of love is about as philosophical as America gets.
Lead Railroader Matt Wignall betrays a fondness for folkies like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, his yawning vocals stretching around such wry phrases as I never killed for pleasure/ I never killed for fun/ but when they take a man's family, it's time to get the gun. Possessing a voice bereft of tonality, Wignall's sandpaper pipes take some getting used to, and the lack of dynamic range hampers a handful of otherwise flawless compositions.
Despite their frequent musical redirection, Havalina Rail Company is a solid ensemble, and they prove their mettle through some rather intricate arrangements. Percussion simmers and pops throughout each track, buttressed by furious guitar plucking and Orlando Greenhill's frequently underrated avant bass work. When the band lets things fly fast and furious, as they do on the Stephen Foster nod "Flower of the Desert," they are at the top of their game.
At 24 tracks, America sports its share of clunkers, chief among them a meandering hip-hop track and a groaner of an ode to Hawaii; the band would do well to work with an outside producer who could curb some of their more ambitious fancies. Though their reach often exceeds their grasp, at least Havalina Rail Company is still willing, in this age of musical stagnation, to extend their arm and grab with gusto.