Undress

Album / Artist: Undress / The Felice Brothers
Label: Yep Roc Records
Reviewed: 9/23/2019
By: DJ Stace

General Comments / Release Notes:
Great alt-country release, with tones of Wilco, Old 97s and others. Waxing poetic on our modern politics. Wry and snarky, a la Father John Misty, at times. Brilliant and beautiful at others. Great instrumentation and arrangements.

From Bandcamp:
“Cut live to tape with very little overdubbing, Undress was recorded in the late summer of 2018 in Germantown, New York. Band members Ian Felice, James Felice, Will Lawrence (drums) and Jesske Hume (bass) teamed up with producer Jeremy Backofen…”
“Undress follows the band’s 2016 album Life In The Dark, and finds the group in a very different place three years later. Between personnel changes, families growing and the political landscape, the result is a tighter, more-paired down release. “Every song is a story,” said James Felice. “On this album everything was a bit more thoughtful, including the arrangements, the sonic quality and the harmonies.”

FCCs: Clean

RIYL: Wilco, Old 97s, Father John Misty, Bill Callahan, Tom Waits

Play: 4,5,8,9,10,11,

Tracks:
1. Undress (03:52) - Mid to up-tempo referendum on modern America with shout outs to KellyAnne Conway, Rs, Ds, Banks, evengelicals, anarchists, etc… Horns. A bit vanilla in terms of the melody, etc… Reminds me of a mediocre Bruce Springsteen tune. Great lyrics, though.
2. Holy Weight Champ (04:05) - Nice slow to mid-tempo guitar strumming ballad. Great backup vocals.
3. Special Announcement (04:14) - Mid-tempo bouncer announcing an idealistic presidential platform. “I can promise more berries…” Great honky-tonk piano accomp. Builds to raucous crescendo ending.
4. **** Nail It on the First Try (02:10) - A single lyric. Sometimes that’s all you need. Any more would have ruined this song. Beautiful, spare, brief and perfect. Play this. The first time you hear it will take your breath. Sounds like a long lost Tom Waits tune. Builds to a beautiful soaring instrumental ending.
5. ** Salvation Army Girl (03:09) - In the tradition of Violent Femmes. Great uptempo rocking alt-punk-country ode to the check out girl at our favorite re-retailer. Brass, honkytonk piano, oohs and ahhs backup vocals, it’s all in there.
6. Poor Blind Birds (05:47) - Great gospel-like Hammond keyboard opening. Slow strumming, lamenting and great harmonies.
7. TV Mama (03:44) - Groovy bassline starts off, soon gets strummy. 70’s country rock radio fare, complete with great steel guitar work. Piano an steel guitar hint of Leon Russell.
8. *** The Kid 03:59 - Slow tempo ballad starts with acoustic guitar and storytelling lyrics of PTSD and blame. Backup vocals soon join and over the course of the song more instrumentation joins until its a raucous all in honkytonk bar sing-along.
9. ** Hometown Hero (03:38 ) - Accordion intro with banjo, gradually gives way to a cool tribal rhythm. Appalachian undertones. Great lamenting lyrics and vocal melody.
10. ** Jack Reminiscing (03:37) - Rocking Dylanesque piano, guitar and heavy snare toe tapper. Mid to uptempo.
11. ** Days of the Years (03:58) - Another Dylanesque acoustic guitar accounting of the days of a year. Great lyrics, with a melody that stays just out of their way.
12. Socrates (04:45) - Starts quiet with cavernous piano fading in. Lyrics are great, taking the story Socrates' execution and applying it to a songwriter. Spare and quiet at places, epic and craching at others. Great closer.