Reviews
Dear and Glorious Physician
Dear and Glorious Physician
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Add to del.ico.us.Review Date: 2007-05-21
Dear + Glorious Physician -- or at least those that are responsible for writing their bio on their homepage -- fancy themselves to be a “violent young art form.” Why bands feel the need to say such frivolous things, I do not understand; it just leaves me listening to their self-titled album trying to decide whether above statement is true or buzz-creating bullshit. I don’t want to be in that position. I’d much rather write a review.
There is something to be said for writing a review cold, not bothering with trying to sift through all the write-ups and information on the band’s homepage. In that case, I would write a review telling you that for the most part, Dear + Glorious Physician have created a neat album here. Instead, I find myself struggling with how a band who at times sound like a much more serious, and darker version of The Trews (gasp!) comes to the conclusion that they are a violent young art form.
The band, which consists of four siblings, have obviously been influenced by some of the must beloved bands of the seventies and eighties: The Pixes, the Smiths, the Talking Heads. The influence can be heard in the music with varying degrees of success. When it works really well is when it’s an influence, when it doesn’t work so well is when Dear + Glorious Physician attempt to create new songs by these bands that no longer exist.
It all starts off so good, with the brilliantly brooding rock track “Spooky Action.” Like that amazing first date, you are immediately attracted and discover common ground, but there is enough mystery that you want to find out more.
But then you wake up the next morning to find the chemistry has disappeared sometime between last night and breakfast. This is what happened to me with Dear + Glorious Physician. After the opening song and the first few minutes of “Behold the Man”, I thought New Granada had smashed another one out of the park like they did with last years’ Candy Bars release. Inexplicably, two minutes into this song Jillian and Charles Westfall break into an impromptu, off-key, cringe-inducing rendition of ”When the Saints Come Marching In,” and in the process completely trash an otherwise decent tune.
The negative momentum carries over into “A Whiter Machine” which is all flash and little-to-no substance. The main guitar riff, heard about 284,123 times during the song, bores me to tears. It all can go sour so, so quickly.
And just when I was ready to write this album off completely, they come roaring back with “Frenzy (What Happened Them)” which finds the brother/sister vocal tandem of Jillian and Charles working better than at any other time during the album. Maybe the extended length of this track allowed for the band to be more creative, or maybe it’s just a coincidence. If Dear + Glorious Physician are in fact a violent young art form, the only sign I see of it would be during the meaty part of this six-minute jaunt.
I’m not sure where the Westfall’s Four, otherwise known as Dear + Glorious Physicians, will go from here. I won’t deny the potential, but one has to wonder if they’ll be that band who plays around their city and develops a reputation for thinking they are a bigger deal than they really are. They could go that way, and it would be a shame; or, they could stop worrying about the hype and build on this relatively promising debut and create interest the right way.
Score: 6.5
- Dan