The New Frontiers

Getting sick generally sucks. However, it does occasionally allow me to catch up on music and movies, since I can't do much else when I'm lying in my bed or on my couch feeling like I'm going to die. I am a movie and music freak, so this past week when I had a horrible summer cold I made the best of it. I watched a few movies I hadn't seen (Be Kind, Rewind was really good) and some old favorites (Donnie Darko), and listened to a lot of music. When I say I'm a music freak, I'm not exaggerating. Ask my friends or family. My 14 yr old son actually called me a freak recently after a stretch in the car with my Sirius satellite radio (can't live without it) blaring for a couple of hours. No matter what station we switched to, I was singing along with almost every lyric of every song that came on. Which is one reason I love indie music. It gives me a chance to hear stuff I don't know by heart and find new stuff to fall in love with. I eat it up. When I find something new that is really great (and generally unknown), I want to tell everyone about it. My top ten albums of last year included stuff that I still don't hear anywhere but in my collection but should be played at least on indie stations. I've emailed Sirius' Left of Center channel several times about Siberian, whose album With Me was my top pick for last year and who are incredible new group from the Seattle area (which has an awesome music scene these days), yet still I hear nothing.

When I get in these listening moods what I usually do is click through my digital collection on my hard drive and randomly throw 2 or 3 songs at a time from artists and albums that I've not listened to much (or sometimes at all- I collect more than I have time to get to) into a long and ever expanding playlist and see where the mix takes me. Ocassionally it takes me to great album that's been neglected and I get hooked. This was the case this past week with The New Frontiers' debut album Mending. This album had been on my hard drive for months and had not seen the light of day. Several days and many, many listens later I need to share it.

The New Frontiers are from the Dallas area and are thus far in the lead for best album of the year in my book. They have been compared to Coldplay in comments I have seen here and there due to their slower-tempo, introspective style. They also make masterful use of keyboards, in my opinion, blending them wonderfully with the guitars, but not letting them stand out too much. I would say that they are bulding on the legacy of Toad the Wet Sprocket as much or more than Coldplay. This album is like a really great book or movie that leaves me wanting so much more when it ends.

The first thing you notice on Mending is that there is melody. Lots of it. These songs are not built around attitude, volume, rhythm, or guitar hooks, although they incorporate all these at appropriate levels. Primarily, though, there's great melodies, sung by a really good voice. Singer Nathan Pettijohn makes me feel the songs. His voice is soothing and pretty, but not in a bubblegum way. Think Glen Phillips from TTWS on I will Not Take These Things For Granted or Crowing. There are a few songs that I think are album tracks which work best in context rather than standing alone, but to me that's a good thing. I'm really an album guy. I can't stand the modern idea of buying single tracks from itunes or wherever. Even if I don't care for the other songs, I have to have the whole album for that context. "Passing On", "Spirit and Skin", "Who Will Give Us Love", and, to a lesser extent, "Mirrors" are all album tracks, but are great songs in context and the album couldn't do without them. The stand-outs, though, are the rest of the tracks. Starting with the opener "Black Lungs", an alt-country tinged track, and followed by the beautiful "The Day You Fell Apart", the mood is set. Then comes the money track, "Man Down". It just knocks me out. Really the whole album knocks me out. I can't say enough about "Strangers", "This is My Home"(maybe the most Toad-like song) and "Walking on Stones". From the production to the music, the lyrics to the vocals, this album is a must-have in any music lovers' collection.