Features
(429)
Back in the earlier part of this decade, the Features were fated to be the "next big thing" in Nashville rock 'n' roll. Sure, they didn't have the curious, media-ready backstory of their friends the Kings of Leon, but what they did have was years of hard-won experience on the Southeastern club circuit. After releasing a self-titled indie EP in '97, the band delivered a strong (and critically-acclaimed) debut album with Exhibit A for Universal in 2004, but a subsequent clash of wills with the evil media corporation found the Features back out on the street.
The loss of their label deal was a big blow to a young band, no doubt, but unlike many of their brethren, the Features had the steel to persevere. Their return to the rank-n-file of indie-rock resulted in Contrast, a fine five-song EP in 2006 and now, a half-a-decade since their fall-from-major-label-grace, a triumphant full-length effort in the self- released Some Kind Of Salvation.
Some Kind Of Salvation shows that not only has the band not lost its sense of humor after the whole U-music spectacle, but that they've emerged with all of the musical elements that made them so special in the first place firmly intact. The Features' trademark sound is an odd blend of '60s psychedelica and pop, '70s guitar-rock, and '80s punk/new wave with scraps of Britpop and singer-songwriter angst thrown in for good measure. Behind frontman Matt Pelham's keening voice and slashing fretwork, the sturdy rhythm section of bassist Roger Dabbs and drummer Rollum Haas build a surprisingly robust structure while keyboardist Mark Bond throws in a little rolling 88's whenever necessary.
Since the core of the Features has been together for better than a decade, the band's innate chemistry allows them to follow Pelham's lead and spin pure magic. For instance, "Wooden Heart" sports a strutting Memphis soul soundtrack within its timeless rock framework as the song's wall-of-instrumentation is punctuated with blasts of rhythmic guitar and piercing vocal harmonies. "The Temporary Blues" is a working-class coming-of-age tale with insightful lyrics, joyously clashing instrumentation, and Pelham's appropriately strained vocals.
The electro-pop rhythms of "Concrete" are matched by Pelham's whipsmart lyrics - "I'm the king of indecision, just sitting on my throne, and if you ask me my opinion, I'll tell you I don't know" is a delicious bit of wordplay, while the song's chorus - "nothing is complete, nothing is concrete, nothing is for certain, as far as I can see" - is pure genius, summing up perfectly both the band's experience and life overall. "Off Track" sounds like a melancholy version of the Strokes, minus the fog of faux NYC hipness, chiming rhythms and dashes of guitar paired with soulful vocals that are nearly lost in the depths of the mix.
The closest musical comparison that you could make for the Features would be to their Nashville neighbors Lambchop - both bands are talented, unpredictable, and seemingly without fear in their creation of music that is anything but cookie-cutter or trend-following. Whereas Lambchop uses country music as its jumping off point, however, the Features are firmly set in a pop-rock tradition. Onto this musical foundation, Pelham and crew include the playful anarchism of Wayne Coyne and the Flaming Lips, the wry sense of humor of Ray Davies, and probably a 100 or so other influences that are thrown into the blender and come out imminently sounding like nothing other that the Features.
Maybe Some Kind Of Salvation provides the band with exactly that - salvation in the wake of their stormy past - and it comes as no surprise that your new favorite rock band closes the album with the pleading "All I Ask," where Pelham implores "I won't give up on you, so don't give up on me." With this, the Features are well deserving of another shot at the brass ring. The Rev sez "check 'em out!"
(Some Kind Of Salvation was initially self-released by the band, but it's now slated as the first album released by 429 Records, the new label formed by the Kings of Leon and Bug Music. The album reissue will include a bonus track, "Now You Know," which the Reverend has sadly not yet heard....)
Standout Tracks: "Whatever Gets You By," "Wooden Heart," "All I Ask" REV. KEITH A. GORDON
