Partisan Records
2010
I fell in love with Deer Tick back in February. I think. Whenever they came through and played a show. It was on a Sunday night, and I had a few of their records in my iTunes that I had listened to a few times because my old roommate Ian told me I'd probably dig them. They were playing a show at the Jackpot, and wasn't all too familiar with their music. What a great show! I listened to Deer Tick obsessively afterward. I fell in love with Born on Flag Day first and War Elephant came shortly thereafter.
This album has taken longer for me to love it. Much much longer. I've put it on a few times while I was at work or driving around, and it just doesn't have nearly as many jams on it. I could put Born on Flag Day on any time and rock out to that one song "The Ghost" in my car, or more appropriately for this time of year, "Straight into a Storm." Black Dirt Sessions has fewer songs that you can really rock out to. Some songs feel way way stripped down. The first two songs are pretty catchy. "Choir of Angels" is a good opener, I kinda dug the organ and the weird harmonies on it. I'm listening to "Twenty Miles" right now, and it's a really solid Deer Tick jam, with a fun little bass line that sounds like it's played with a bow instead of being plucked out. After that song, the record gets kinda quiet. For the next few songs it's John McCauley III and a piano, and some song about the Sun being sad, which has to be one of the cheesiest/worst songs that this otherwise great band has written. It picks up a bit with the song "Piece by Piece and Frame by Frame" which is a nice pick me up after "Goodbye, Dear Friend"- it has some fun harmonies. After "Mange," which is a good summer jam, the album picks up a bit with some more upbeat songs that you'd expect from Deer Tick.
So what do I think of this record? It's probably the weakest record this band has done. It's not all bad songs, but there's a lull in this record that makes you skip over part of it. I could have really done with out that song "Sad Sun" and the new rendition of "Christ Jesus." There's really only about 3 songs that get in the way, the rest are really quite listenable. I think that I should probably put this record on again around October, because it kindof has a creepy vibe to it.
So yeah, I'm going to give it 3.5 out of 5 steering wheels. It has some good jams on it, but you have to wade through some crap to get through it.
