Desert City Soundtrack – Funeral Car / 12 Tracks / 2003 Deep Elm Records / http://www.breadmusic.com/ / http://www.deepelm.com / Reviewed 20 October 2003 / Released 10 November 2003

Moving much more into an energized state after their last album, “Contents of Distraction”, Desert City Soundtrack have done the practically impossible : improved on an almost-perfect album. Ratcheting up the intensity for “Funeral Car”, Desert City Soundtrack stays true to classical composition, with a number of their tracks following chord progression and holding onto a Trans-Siberian Orchestra type instrumentation. Using the piano heavily in tracks like “Take You Under”, Desert City Soundtrack modify what is acceptable in the piano line; using sharp, contrasting lines, DCS makes the soundscape ebb and flow like an ocean, all focused around Matt’s vocals. “These Games We Play”, with vocals and out-of-control, screeching guitars, sounds as if At the Drive-In reunited for a track. Desert City Soundtrack is the ultimate tease, the divine flirt – winding down a track like the aforementioned “These Games We Play” to levels practically not heard, they bust out into absolute chaos.

Desert City Soundtrack incorporates a very Neil Young sounding Matt in “Something About A Ghost” in the bridges, the eye of the storm if you will. After the eye passes however, all bets are off as the maelstrom of cacophonous drums and guitars sweep up anything left in its path. Matching the liner-art of bare trees in the wintertime, “Traction and Temperature” is a relatively bare track, minimalistic in its portrayal of piano and a wispy synthesizer backing it. Slowing down the tempo with “Traction” only makes the next track, “Westpoint”, all the more striking with its piano rolls. A slightly audible clacking, as if from a set of spoons, makes up for the missing timekeeping roll before the pseudo-Blink 182 drum rolls push it out of the way during “Westpoint”. The entire track is a fitting end for the band, with all the roles laid out during the disc making one final appearance before the curtain closes for the night. Some might think the track a little cluttered, but Desert City Soundtrack composed it in such a way that the unseemly mass traipses around like the most delicate ballerina.

“Drowning Horses” just shows another one of the many artists in many styles that have influenced Desert City Soundtrack for the better. “Drowning Horses” has a piano line reminiscent of Ben Folds, and transitions that strike me as being a whole-hearted nod to Axl Rose. All and all, if someone is looking for a band that doesn’t stay long enough to be categorized a certain way, it would have to be Desert City Soundtrack. Making an album that is so memorable is hard to do, but Desert City Soundtrack makes it seem no harder than pounding on a keyboard and screaming.

Top Tracks : Traction and Temperature, Drowning Horses