As Tall As Lions : You Can’t Take It With You

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/astallaslionsyoucantakeit.jpg" alt=" " />As Tall As Lions' smooth, big sound gets even finer. ...
7.7 Triple Crown
2009 

As Tall As Lions : You Can't Take It With You With today’s love of lo-fi, shitgaze, and party-rock in the indie scene, smooth music just isn’t get the respect that it’s due.  Sure, indietronica still has a nice following, but that following isn’t growing, and that sound can veer off into beat-laden electro-dance.  Alt-smooth gets labeled as being either too close to adult contemporary/easy listening or to emo-soft, either too old or too young.  But New York’s As Tall As Lions are bringing it back by embracing it with aplomb on their latest, You Can’t Take It With You.

As Tall As Lions last put out a full-length in 2006, and that self-titled release stoked anticipation for more, which was only whetted further in the following year with Into the Flood EP (QRO review).  Flood did indicate that the band was going for a bigger sound, without being too big, and that’s something Can’t lives up to.  Opener “Circles” uses really nice effects to create a smooth sound that grows into an expansive breakdown, and that kind of in-song growth is where the record is at its finest.  “In Case of Rapture” grows from a wafting instrumental (preceded by the wafting, reverberating instrumental “Duermete”), while “The Narrows” from something smoother, but both build into some pressing Anglo-emotional expanse (earning their comparisons to Doves – QRO live review).

Sometimes the big is played a little flat & even emo, like “Sixes & Sevens”, but “Go Easy” nicely combines the two.  When the band departs from this metropole and employs restraint, like with “We’s Been Waitin’”, “Sleepyhead”, and “Lost My Mind” the results are nice, but not what you’re looking for (and closer “Lost” has an unnecessary hidden track of meandering material, “Asleep In the Sea”).  A much better venture is when As Tall As Lions even further embrace their smoothness, on the ultra-smooth nighttime glide that is the title track, which goes down like Billy Dee Williams.

You Can’t Take It With You isn’t going to win any plaudits from all of those in the alt-scene following the latest, roughest trends.  But when they get tired of that (and they will – they always do…), As Tall As Lions will be there.

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