Thursday, April 16, 2015

Bop English - Constant Bop

Constant Bop is a wonderful record! James Petralli is the lead singer/songwriter of that furious Texas progpunk band White Denim. There is a positive vibe that runs through the Denim music that, although the lyrics which have so far remained indecipherable for me, is undeniable. Not sure if it’s the Texas twang or James irrepressible personality, it just makes you feel good.

Denim is a kinetic force, masterfully cobbling multiple influences from roots music, to complex prog elements, to 60’s 70’s pop. This collection is much more a boundary-less pop feast.

Dani’s Blues is a trad Rock n’ Roll piano stomp so catchy that will one day it will be made ubiquitous in some Target commercial. It drives like TRex but it’s distinctly 60’s rock. The Question Mark and the Mysterians 96 tears, Vox organ lays down the counter melody to move the song along like an old radio commercial for Palisades Park. 

Throughout the record there is a hifi lowfi tension that draws you in. James mixes sweet pop do wop backing vocals with raging distorted guitar power chords… and it works! It’s a simple enough driving ditty that is densely complex. 

Struck Matches strums out like a Tom Petty RnR riff, then the driving toms pump it up. James builds a bubbling flood that captures the spirit of 80’s Rockpile (which captured the spirit of 50’s Buddy Holly et al) while being dense with swirling, careening disparate flourishes. It’s at once rootsy, genuine and psychedelic. It brings a smile to your face as it reveals layer after layer no matter how many times you hear it. This is a treadmill pulse racer.

Trying picks up the frantic pace where Struck Matches left off, but the rhythm becomes a shuffle that glides in like a summer breeze. With the heart of a Curtis Mayfield cut at it’s core this one just percolates. I only pray that one day a full on 12 piece band takes this out live. It’s built around a clever story of newfound love. James has so much facility in arranging, it’s scary. It twist and turns rhythms in such delightfully engaging ways with maracas, horns and driving percussion, all the standard hooks hit you in succession. Bop English is un-bounded by expectations. The songs go wherever they feel natural going. It all feels familiar, yet new. Classic pop pieces, timeless in appeal expertly executed.

Have I Got it Wrong is one of those tracks that starts out kitschy, but spins on a dime. A jazzy skip through some early psychedelia, that belongs in a period movie soundtrack montage. An echo-laden harpsichord ticks along while guitar harmonics ring out, careening left and right. Somehow these sounds, taken from some early 60’s cheesy sci-fi movie, belong. They sound cool. Then all at once it steps into a fast shuffle. Piano driven, The Raconteurs The Switch and the Spur come to mind as a sonic sister song, although James’ approach is much smoother. It still has sweeping power as he intones “Now where is that light, That you said would lead the way?” Echoes abound on every instrument, every effect swells and subsides to add a life pulse to the jazzy beat. What a trip!

Fake Dog starts out TIGHT! Relentlessly tight. James intones his best Sly Stone and it walks out some trippy swirls. The instruments squeeze and distort, pop and click bouncing inside the tight structure. The drumming is all jazz flourish as the vocal lines go synthetic. It drops to that basic drum pattern and a classic 60’s RnB wah…. and then launches into a pure ’67 Jefferson Airplane distorted guitar solo, but James sees fit to temper it with Brian May orchestrated guitar lines and then proceeds to strut off a distorted mess of a solo that screams raw electric.

Willy Spend an Evening follows, rising from the last blown amp, like Rockpile just came to the rescue. Is that Dave Edmunds? But wait, it twists all country orchestrated with a wonderful steel guitar and sweet vocals. THEN it RAVES up with a horn section? That Farfisa organ and Rockpile roots feel. All elements combine for a warm homey traditional country hoedown. I defy you to stand still through this!

Falling at your Feet again could be a Donovan or Hollies number if it wasn’t so modernly arranged! It has that seminal pop energy, but James mixes with the width of 70’s prog pallet. That is to say the track is ornately adorned with sweet earthy sounds that drip on you like warm honey. The birds that chirp along in the background, put you in a garden (Maybe Eden). Yeah there’s something etherial about this track. The slide solo at the end talks country, but evokes Steve Miller’s Joker…. and skipping over the hillside the birds chirp us goodbye. I don’t want to leave.

Sentimental Wilderness begins like Tull’s Thin Ice of a New Day then wells up with some good old melotron and then drops down thick with a bass line that is more foundation vibration than traditional baseline. It’s like English country meets urban SUV and it WORKS! The patterns build and weave a joyous print. I almost feel like I could hear the handclaps and chorus of “I want to live in America, I want to live in America” from West Side Story at one point! It’s got this chugga-chugga percussion thing going along with an urban SUV sub woofer all the while singing about the Constitution! Holy coleslaw, there so much influence shredded into this thing it’s a wonder it doesn’t turn to mud! Instead it’s genius!

The Hardest Way hits me in the feels. I’ve lived these lyrics in more than one life. Like a piece of machinery the song clicks on with the rhythm of a typical busy couple’s day. A piano warbles through a spinning leslie, that gives it an old time feel. The guitar line moans underneath, setting up the all too busy, tense couple’s dilemma. It’s the mundane workings of the day that add tension and the music reflects it with a terse piano rhythm. The background vocals surge angelic while a harpsichord like pixie dust sprinkles, and a George-Harrison-like guitar solo kind of reminds them that they still have love for each other. It’s a beautifully sincere longing song.

Long Distance Runner could have dropped out of the Donovan catalog save the reggae swing. The chorus is right on the “Hail Atlantis” fault line. How James incorporates such authentic old-timey sounds is amazing!!! And that he freshly applies them into these new/old compositions with such facility amazes me. 


The whole album bursts with invention, swings just right, is crafted like one of the producer greats of the 70’s had their hands in the mix and yet sounds new and fresh. I have listened to the collection on repeat for months. I am confident that it will deliver like classic XTC has over these last 25 years. There are also a bunch of other tracks from these traveling circus sessions (enough to make a double album) that will hopefully one day see the light! I sooooo needed this after the long cold winter we just had. Put this on in the backyard and barbecue! You’ll love it!

You can hear it here.... 

But you should buy it IMMEDIATELY!


1 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Great review. Thanks from Ireland!

7:55 AM  

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