Concert diary: Wake Up the Sleepers review, part three

Album art: www.killhannah.com

Before the album even hit my hot little hands, I was hearing feedback from an anxious street team possibly overrating the disc in their love,  a fear that the addition of guests    Benji Madden and Amanda Palmer to Kill Hannah's newest release Wake Up the Sleepers may come off as a ploy to cash in- that the reviews by other critics would all make it that much more challenging to separate the buzz swirling around from my own thoughts.

It took a few days and dozens of listens to get words onto paper: here goes nothing.

If you are looking for the same old detached emo BS plaguing every band on an alternative station, even in the heart wrenchingly tragic and black humored tongue-in-cheek anthems of old and new Kill Hannah tracks; those looking for another pretty boy crying about pointless crap need to look elsewhere.  Where sadly this little indie gem may never qualify for top 40 status behind those other guys, Sleepers is a very smart album.  Prolific, dotted with some of the most poignant writing ever to come from vocalist Mat Devine, the disc with some of the most personal songs yet has the feel of their American Jet Set album.  With such a different feel than other rockers off previous studio albums; the vocal performance of Devine over 13 tracks paired with live drummer Elias Mallin active on the album, and rhythm guitarist, Dan Wiese taking over most of the guitars after the departure of Jonny Radtke earlier this year, and bassist Greg Corner giving perhaps his best recordings ever.  The addition of guests on tracks, feared to be distracting actually add value to each collaboration bringing out a new dimension in the loss of Radtke, often involved in backing vocals with Wiese.  This band that was once quoted as "playing as if their lives depended on it," have shaken loose what anyone that has seen them live has known was inside them but sometimes fails to deliver in a recording session.  KH waged a hefty gamble with this album and has won.

Palmer and Madden shine as well, unfortunately sometimes underrating Devine's vocals and seem to overpower the lead vocalist a bit in places but most tracks he sings with his heart on his sleeve letting loose the best vocal performance since "Believer".  It is yet to be seen though how each of these songs will translate live with few other than "Acid Rain" and "Strobe Lights" performed so far.  What Palmer especially adds to the songs will be hard to match.

Critics cite an issue that I am in full agreement though on the manic feel of the track order and some recording problems noticed while letting the CD play in its intended order. 

The albums starts in on the dance tracks early until about the 4th "Living in Misery", clearly intended to be a finale with its addition of The Chicago Children's Choir, but instead exits on "Promise Me".  Also the grouping of "Strobe Lights" from whom the title comes, feels too raw to wipe off the demo feel.  The music feels poorly recorded throughout the track with vocals too prominent, giving off a rushed and unfinished feel.  The recording quality is much better on "Why I Have My Grandma's Sad Eyes", a tune so powerful it should have been pushed to the opening of the track list.  "Snowblinded", also has has a similar issue where there lies a noticeable difference in the sound between the tracks bookending it.  The placement of the dancey tracks seems queer too and not evenly distributed to give the disc a feel of picking up and slowing down several times giving off forced glee before fading out. Where just about every song on the album is put-on-repeat-worthy, Sleepers needs to be on shuffle. 

Where I have seen a few questionable moves, the band took a chance and again reinvented themselves.  The lyrical content is beautiful and each member somewhere is truly highlighted.  It is no wonder this band has a huge international following. I look forward to their next task of bringing some more of this work to the stage.

Chicago Indie Music Examiner rating: B-

Every person I have talked to has found their own rearrangement of the track listing so I have provided one below that makes sense to me, but please comment with your own and compare notes.

I struggled to balance the most powerful tracks, those similar in theme, those that flowed well into each other.  My placement is based both musically and lyrically.

1. New York City Speed- I really wanted to put "Grandma" first due to it being the most vocally powerful but I felt that it would push people away the angsty heart-breaker as a lead in so chose the catchy dancer sure to be single worthy.

2. Escape Artistry

3. Why I Have My Grandma's Sad Eyes

4. Acid Rain-Hearing this song live the first few times I really looked forward to it in recorded version and wasn't disappointed.

5. Strobe Lights- The vocals are too overpowering on this track, also the drums sound amazing, but the guitars seem lost at parts.

6. Laika-Major props to Dan Wiese on this track!

7. Mouth to Mouth-It was that or "Vultures" here.  These two juxtaposed in my mind for which track I like more but I think "Mouth" makes the better single.

8. Vultures (Be There For Me)-Easily my second favorite song on the disc.  In fact I have already thought up a rather interesting video concept that would work well for it.

9. Radio-You may wonder how the band had it opening and I pushed it to nine.  Where the "look at me now" concept is appreciated, lyrically the song just isn't that strong and pales in comparison to some of the other tracks.  This reminds me very much of the fact you can't love every song a favorite band writes and reminds me very much of my feelings on the Kill Hannah song "Unwanted." This song does fare well live though.

10. Tokyo (Dance in the Dust)- Long ago, Kill Hannah wrote a song called "Sick Boy" that has very mixed reviews among fans.  It could be the cheer-leading like spelling at the end of the tune, but it reminds me very much of that.  Where I love "Sick Boy", with "Tokyo" I feel like I have already seen this song from them and where the beginning is catchy, once the spelling lesson kicks in, I am done with it and no longer feel like dancing.

11. Snowblinded- I have never liked this song live even though some of the lyrics are quite beautiful.  Also the vocal performance seems a little weak when you play the track in the order it falls on the CD coming off something  like "Radio" and going into "New York City Speed."

12. Promise Me- This song has the open sore that Devine has been tending all album finally cleaned out and beginning to heal by taking the blame so conceptually it should fall toward the end.  For some reason this reminds me of Pretty Hate Machine "Something I Could Never Have", for the vulnerability of the vocals.

13. Living in Misery

Concert diary: Wake Up the Sleepers review, part three