Part 4 of the Havalina saga. Part 1
, Part 2, Part 3.
Note from December 2010: This was originally posted just before midnight on July 4. The entire reason I skipped ahead to Havalina was so I could post this review on that day.
This, in my opinion, is a perfect patriotic album. It's obvious that The Peoples Havalina love this country, but they're joyful about it rather than jingoistic. It's fitting then, that this is their best album.
The roster: Nathan Jensen left. That's the only thing changed from last album, really. So the band still has four percussionists and a violinist. Matt Wignall also plays banjo and lap steel guitar in addition to regular guitar on this album.
The songs on this album correspond to different regions of the 48 states, and they're arranged like a musical road trip: Starting in California, driving south and east, through the desert and then the Gulf states, up along the east coast, then back west through the northern half of the country.
Are you ready for the trip? You got all your bags and everything? You went to the bathroom already, right, because I don't want to stop for a bathroom break in ten minutes. Okay, off we go!
The Southwest
"Bovine Stomp": Much less stompin' than advertised. Plenty of bovines, though.
"American Skies": An alt-country opener. Matt plays steel guitar and some guest musician Latino All-Star plays organ.
"Mexi Radio": An interlude. Static and radio samples.
"Puerco Chico": Latin-influenced rock. I believe Matt wrote in the liner notes that this was their impression of Los Angeles.
"Dark Skies": A spaghetti western song.
The Gulf States / The Southeast (I don't remember where the divide between these two sections is)
"Little Darl'n": More surf-rock! Only this time, the verses and chorus sound like they came from completely different songs.
"Travel Music 1 (Blues Pick'n)": Another interlude. Blues guitar and more radio samples.
"Miss. River": Here and on the next track, Havalina tries to play some zydeco-blues, just without an accordion player. The fiddle and harmonica try to fill the gap here.
"Cajun Blue": Jeff Suri (the drummer) wrote this one. I think that's why the percussion dominates the song so. Love those castanets at the end. Suri also sings lead vocals.
"Travel Music 2": If you haven't noticed yet, this album has a lot of interlude tracks. Hope you like harmonica.
"Bullfrog": HELL YES are you ready for Ray the Bullfrog? Because ready or not, he's BACK. Are you ready for jamming out on banjo and steel guitar? How about a field recording of a frog pond?
Is this the end? No! This song isn't over until Ray the Bullfrog says it's over.
Seriously, this is my favorite track.
"Travel Music 3 (Some Country Pick'n)": See, Ray the Bullfrog was so epic that they need to sandwich him between two instrumental interludes to protect the rest of the album from his glory.
"Flower of the Desert": Now this is country. Or rather, this is what you get when some non-country musicians play country and crank the "country-ness" up to 11.
"Travel Music 4 (Banjo Pick'n the 9th)": An excerpt from Beethoven's Ninth, performed on the banjo.
The Big Cities on the East Coast:
"Feeling Green": An attempt at instrumental hip-hop. It's... um... yeah.
'''United State(s)": Jazz. Cool jazz, I guess? Remember when I said Nathan Jensen was gone? He's back as a Latino All-Star just for this track. So, guitar, violin, and saxophone solos.
The Midwest:
"Pick'n and Yodel": Matt Wignall said he thinks yodeling is a lost art.
"Boris the Milkman": Do I hear bits of Russian Lullabies in this? The liner notes say they were going for The Nightmare Before Christmas with the backing vocals. Hey, there's a cowbell.
"Devil in the Cornfield": Blues-country-gospel-jam rock? I can't tell anymore; that last track broke the part of my brain that tells genres apart. Erick's violin really shines on this song.
The Pacific:
"(An Ascetic Heart Warms) Alaska": A bass and some artfully-arranged noise.
"Chips": Havalina actually wrote this for a cellphone commercial. It wasn't used.
"California": I like to say that every single Havalina album has one white-boy reggae track; so this would be the obligatory white reggae track for this album. Except that's kind of a stretch. This is too fast.
"Let's Not Forget Hawaii": Time to slow things down with a Hawaiian-ish ballad. No ukuleles, just steel guitar and a surf-rock-tuned electric guitar.
"Keep Smil'n": Folk / gospel. The lyrics of this one bug me.
An old rusty man walked through the bushes
with his daughter in arms.
She asked him "Papa, do you love me?
Do you love me?"
"You know darling, this world ain't always as it seems.
"It ain't as simple as green beans."After the end of the song, wait six and a half minutes to hear a completely pointless hidden track. Or, better yet, don't.
If you only listen to one track, listen to: I don't know. Re-read my descriptions of the songs and listen to the one you think sounds most interesting.
What, you still want me to tell you which to choose? Fine, "Bullfrog". Ray the Bullfrog will not be denied his due.
For part 5 of the Havalina saga, click here.
