Album Of The Week: "Crooked Brain" by Clementine

Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of July 26th-August 1st, 2015:

Clementine - Crooked Brain

01. The Psalmist's Shadow
02. Blood Diamonds
03. Float
04. Ate Baby Porcupine
05. Strongarm
06. Elephant And The Attic Tern
07. The Leaves Are Changing Brown
08. Mother's Song
09. In Praise
10. The Sun It Still Rises

(Photo: Kyle Kotajarvi)

It's no secret that the 90's are back in a big way these days. The glorious, lo-fi sounds of bands like Guided By Voices & Sebadoh can be found all over the indie rock world yet again. Bands like Titus Andronicus & Speedy Ortiz have taken the jangled, post-grunge model and added their own mono-genre-endorsed anthemic qualities to give us a welcome reminder that there will always be a place in the world for bands that embrace plugging in and turning up the volume as steps 1 & 2 to being a great band.

Why do I bring this up?  Because Minneapolis band Clementine represents a different sort of 90's renaissance. Their debut album Crooked Brain gazes back at the slower-burning sounds of post-grunge. They emphasize texture over bombast, moments over hooks.  It's a throwback to a time of longer attention spans and delayed gratification.

To really grasp Crooked Brain it's best to break it into two halves LP-style.  The first half of the record finds the band dabbling in stylistic turns.  "The Psalmist's Shadow" opens the album with over a minute of instrumental build-up before finally giving way to a verse and a mid-tempo pace that, as we find out over the course of Side B, is the band's forte. The three song run of "Blood Diamonds-Float-Ate Baby Porcupine" finds the band at their most daring, channeling Faith No More, Pixies, and... Live? It's a dynamic run that doesn't always hit, but when it does it works wonders.  "Ate Baby Porcupine" in particular rides some sneaky great guitar work and the band's most hummable hook to Crooked Brain's early peak.

Beginning with "Elephant And The Attic Tern," Side B provides an elongated look at Clementine as rafter-reaching balladeers. Abandoning the experimentation of Side A, the band aims big with a full set of slow-burners with big ideas, stepping away from post-rock and toward straight-up arena rock.

Now, I'm fully aware that some folks may take the term "arena rock" as a criticism, but that's preposterous stance to take. It's especially preposterous when a band is this damn good at it. Toeing the line between personal lyrics and universal sentiment, Clementine aims big and mostly hit their mark. "The Leaves Are Changing Brown" may be the stereotypical "acoustic jam," but it sounds more like a Brand New deep cut than some sort of watered-down R.E.M. cast-off.  Late cuts "Mother's Song" and "In Praise" are nearly 11 minutes total, but while they sort of blend together on first listen, repeated plays reveal hooks that reward patience. And of course, like any great 90's album, the band keeps a killer in the pocket for album closer.  "The Sun It Still Rises" takes the other four songs from Side B and gives them a jolt, speeding up the tempo, doubling down on the riffs, and riding an upward melody to a bit of catharsis.



To be completely honest, Crooked Brain didn't click with me right away. However, that's why I spend a week listening to these albums everyday. Sometimes it takes a while for them to really reveal themselves.  Once I was able to put understand Clementine's strengths (clean sound, universal themes, hooks that turn up like little shots of sunlight through clouds) I found Crooked Brain to be a unique & enjoyable record among the Twin Cities rock scene that doesn't always breed this sort of patience over immediacy and subtlety over volume.

If you'd like to check out Crooked Brain for yourself head on over to Clementine's Bandcamp page. The band is also undertaking a tour of the midwest this summer.  Check out their Facebook page for dates.