Why you should buy the Vehicle Birth's Tragedy

1. "Crack Farm" -- A churning, 6-minute guitar-based cut (they all are, really), singer Timothy James singing softly through most of the tune building to a totally satisfying denouement. A great opener.

2. "We Need to Find the Girls" -- It starts revving up hard here. A great opening line, "Relax it's a joke/ It's just tourists taking pictures," that suggests something underhanded's going on. The guitars are quiet and staccato, deliberately moving down the frets while James' voice reaches up. Lotsa stops and starts (a common theme on this record). A nice little strutting guitar interlude ("People that don't talk a lot are thinking about what they want to say," is the main refrain) before erupting into a huge chorus of guitars and screams. The guitars (played clean) circle back on themselves (think Slint) beautifully.

3. "Marathon" -- The best cut, and one of the best guitar anthems I've ever heard. The palm-muted chugging riff is breathtaking. The song has a great build of exploding Marshall stacks, a pumping bass and crashing drums. The chorus is pure pop. Tight, brief and perfect, it's a keeper.

4. "Sideshow" -- Time for a breather as the sweat's really been flying. Post-rock to a Middle-Eastern gait (odd riffs overlapping, creating a sea of harmonies and clashes that work beautifully). A strange cut, with James chanting nonsense ("Hollywood is news to me," goes one line). Hypnotic best describes it.

5. "LifeHighSchool" -- A tragic tune of young romance cut short by death sung over deep, full tones. Meandering, with a nice arhythmic bridge thrown in the middle. Not a great tune, but it's a good setup for the next cut.

6. "The Leaders of Pursuit" -- Getting back towards the sound of the record's beginning, here. One of the record's most distinctive sounds is how snappy the drums are. The drumming isn't particularly great (it's solid though) but it's recorded with the crispness of someone like Albini, but without the bass-heavy menace. Maybe closer to how prog drums sound -- the high-hat ringing like a dinner bell. Prog is actually a fair tag to apply to a lot of this record. Maybe this is the missing link between math rock and prog? It could be argued. There aren't too many choruses on this disc, mainly parts loosely strung together.

7. "Yankeedom" -- Starts off with a kid singing in a scratchy voice, "Where there is nothing you'll be a kid someday/ Running outside playing greeting secret handshakes/ Going to God flying kite competition" (or that's what it sounds like anyway). A huge barrage of guitarbassdrumsscreams then erupt, upping the testosterone on the kid's hesitancy effectively. This is real barn burner of a cut with some nice fills and starts and stops and a high density of screamed "HEYS!" which I always like. It's so fucking enthusiastic. It ends with James, the singer, singing those same opening lyrics acapella, bringing it full circle (of life).

8. "Daycap" -- Another meandering tune, this one with just a tint of jazz. Quiet for the most part, June of 44 would be a good reference point. Again, it's not a great song, but in context it sounds great. Stretch your neck here, crack your knuckles.

9. "One Mississippi" -- So I misspoke earlier cause I think I like this one more than "Marathon" for one part alone. It starts with guitars, some crashes and a sweet organ tone. It gets even smoother when the vox come in, James stuttering lines about books and horoscopes and pick-up lines, slowly building to a pre-chorus that features the disc's first vocal harmonies (which sound fucking great). Then the chorus, one of my favorite moments in any song ever (I get chills every time, 4 REAL!). Actually not the chorus yet. Vehicle Birth make you wait for it with another verse and pre-chorus. Waiting. Waiting. Fuck. I just realized it's the next song that has it. This one is really pretty though. Very sad. So this is the sad song and the next one's the rawk song. K.

10. "23" -- Yeah, here it is. An ode to Michael Jordan? Sure, let's pretend. A really snippy snare crack starts it off. Busy bass line. Clean guitar sounds playing some open chords, but here comes a nice distorted guitar line. And now the drums get really hard. Going staccato here. An extended build. But to what? Guitars building a Jacob's Ladder up to that chorus that I mentioned ("Lick a stamp and send it/I dig you," I love that line) before. "My eyes fell from the sky," James sings in the chorus, which is gorgeous. The best part though you have to listen hard to hear. Way back in the arrangement some other dude's singing the same lines as him, but a half-beat too late, so that after James has finished his line the other guy's starting to say "sky." It's a really nice effect that makes me smile and get shivers everytime. Helping the case -- the verses are so tender and soft with lots of beautiful guitar parts (Fahey could like this) so the contrast is all the better (what use is there with noise unless there's a nice melody to play off of?). It actually only hits the chorus twice, but the second time it takes almost a minute to build to it, and this time that weird backing vocal is fucking screaming. Really screaming, so this time the "SKY" part sounds like he's shouting that bombs are falling or something.

11. "The Discovery of Oxygen" -- The final track has some real stinker lyrics. Sample ones: Don't push your luck with Mexican love signs, The smartest man in the world doesn't know he is the smartest man in the world, You can't learn anymore from Hendrix. But the arrangement bites from "Strawberry Fields Forever," with a Moog wheezing slowly in and out. It's a really sad fucking song even though he's singing nonsense. It's like he's too torn up about something (maybe the bombs falling?) to really say anything, so he resorts to non sequitors, which, after you get used to them, are somehow more effective than some typical lovey dovey bullshit. And then it's over.

So I'm not gonna look over this or edit it anyway. This was written while listening to the album straight through. I doubt I made a convincing case for the disc and I'm sure this is written like shit but at the very least feel my enthusiasm! I love this record so fucking much.