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(More customer reviews)State Radio has been my favorite existing band since 2005, though I've been a fan since their formation in 2002; and for years, although their live shows became better and better as time went on, the band did not release any single studio production that could rival the sheer power and audacity of 2002's Flag of the Shiners, which featured Chad Urmston playing everything but drums. Since 2006, however, what with its finalized line-up of Chuck Fay on bass and Mike "Maddog" Najarian on drums, the band has been carving their way in a direction completely their own and much better than anything Chad has attempted previously with other line-ups.
Let It Go is the indication of a band truly coming into its own at long last, and having listened to this album almost nonstop over the past three weeks, I confidently proclaim that it has trumped even the magnificent Flag of the Shiners as State Radio's best studio work.
For one, Chad showcases some of his best vocal work ever on songs like Mansin Humanity (just listen to him shout the "I'm not calling out a warning" bridge!), Evolution (the final verse and chorus can break your heart if you let them), and Still & Silent (containing what is perhaps the single best moment in the album--Chad's impassioned ascending wordless wail in the second chorus). His intricate heavy guitar work forms the backbone of Mansin Humanity and Held Up by the Wires, among others.
Elsewhere, though, Chad's guitar slips into the rhythm position and lets his bandmates take over musically. The title track is the best example of this: while Chad lays down a foundation with simple power chords, the song only becomes as powerful as it does because of Chuck's nasty bass part and Maddog's magnificent drumfills. Its bridge continues in the same vein. Simply put, all the best moments in the song are either Chuck's or Maddog's doing. Particularly noteworthy are the fantastic screams in the chorus (a surprise and *very* welcome development from the song's live arrangement).
The reggae tunes, likewise, thrive on Chuck and Maddog's backing, though ultimately they are carried by Chad's wonderfully catchy and melodic vocal lines. Nevertheless, Chuck has had few basslines as infectious as those in Calling All Crows and Bohemian Grove (and Evolution, though in that song his bassline isn't as prominent, what with the lead guitar playing alongside it). Maddog, whose single flaw for the past two or so years has been that he wasn't as good as his predecessor Brian Sayers when it came to reggae drumming, at last proves his worth in that genre as well--he's never done as fine a job as he does here on the aforementioned Bogrove and Evo.
Chuck's vocals, too, have finally been given their due. Though he was already becoming more important as a backup vocalist in 2007's Year of the Crow (particularly in Fight No More and Fall of the American Empire, in which he was given small but crucial solo parts), on Let It Go he is extremely high in the mix, as he damn well deserves to be--when he joins in with harmonies during the bridge in Doctor Ron, or soars in over Chad at the end of Still & Silent, it's enough to send chills down your spine. Bogrove is almost a duet.
In many ways, however, at least insofar as we consider the music on its own terms and ignore the lyrics for a moment, Let It Go is Maddog's album. He makes this abundantly clear with the opening track, which boasts a sick drum part reminiscent of Alice in Chain's Would? (unrelated to his drumming but still to his credit, the blood-curdling, vocalcord-tearing scream that closes out the track comes courtesy of Mr. Najarian as well). His reggae prowess has already been discussed. Doctor Ron the Actor, Arsenic & Clover, and Held Up by the Wires are all songs to which Maddog's drumming is arguably the most spectacular contribution; this is not the case in Still & Silent only because in it Chad delivers one of his best vocal performances ever. Around the time of Year of the Crow's release, many interviews saw Chad citing Maddog as the reason the band took off in a heavier direction, but only now has it become evidently clear how and why this came about. The man is simply one of the best drummers in rock today, and his performance on this album is rivaled only by Matt Helder's on Humbug in the trophy race for 2009's best drumming.
All this belies my contention that Let It Go contains a lot of Chad's best songwriting ever. The album includes both perfected classics such as Blood Escaping Man (the earliest known recording of which dates to the end of the Dispatch era), Held Up by the Wires (a live State Radio staple since 2004), and Mansin Humanity (debuted a few nights after Gang of Thieves in 2007, but the three main riffs of which have been kicking around in Chad's closet of musical ideas for over nine years) and relatively new songs (the rest of the album: Arsenic & Clover was debuted in the tour following the release of Year of the Crow, and all the other songs slipped their way into the catalogue between then and now). Though the album is more a collection of songs than a focused attempt at conveying a single mood or exploring a single style (an example of which approach would be my other favorite album of the year, Arctic Monkeys' Humbug), it is a collection of utterly fantastic songs.
Doctor Ron is easily the best in a long tradition of State Radio songs that stick to a basic structure of offbeat-verse followed by punkish-chorus (the 2002 arrangement of As With Gladness; Rushian; Good Graces; CIA; and Unfortunates). Mansin, Arsenic, and Held Up are the best indicators of State Radio's metal leanings since the Flag of the Shiners heavyweights (excepting Rash of Robberies, which I still take to be the band's single strongest track). The same goes for Crows, Evo, and Bogrove on the reggae side of things. Knights improves on the furious pop-punk appeal of live favorite Diner Song, while the title track, Blood Escaping Man, and Still & Silent forge altogether new ground for the band. Finally, the "Long View Farm" version of Indian Moon showcases the band simply having a lot of fun by switching up instruments in an impromptu live take (the only overdub is Chuck's lead guitar noodling). Incidentally, this final track is Chad's own favorite off the album (with Still & Silent in second place).
Chadwick's lyrical content, too, is stronger than ever, though less politically urgent than it was in Year of the Crow. Mansin Humanity paints a haunting picture of the Armenian Genocide; Crows, Evo, and S&S are hopeful calls for unity, peace, and action; Arsenic and Let It Go draw on Chad's experiences in and concerns about the current state of Zimbabwe; Doctor Ron tells of How's Your News? reporter Ronnie Simonsen; Knights channels Chad's memories of growing up in Boston; Bogrove lashes out against corrupt politicans the world over; and finally, Held Up and BEM simply tell good stories (one about "the indomitable human spirit" and the other about Odysseus and Penelope). Chad has been one of our best living songwriters for some time now, and the songs on display here only strengthen him in that position.
All these factors combine to make what is easily State Radio's best studio work yet. Buy it, listen to it, cherish it, and support its makers!
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