_Tears of the Valedictorian_ - Frog Eyes

Wow, I picked a hell of an album for my first Mog album review. To say that Frog Eyes is a polarizing band would be quite the understatement. You will either love the way they push rock music to it's boundaries and create something you've never heard before, or you'll cringe at the strange, unintelligible vocals. Carey Mercer croons and squawks with all the verve of a shit faced opera singer, but the passion that he puts into his voice can be felt through your speakers and is evident in every sound he makes.Frog Eyes doesn't create music in the average sense. They're strange and they're completely unapologetic about it. Most of their songs create a wall of sound, which rides at you on a wave of unrelenting synth chords and percussion. They sure do know how to rock though, they just do it in there own way.The album opens with what could be considered a straight up successor to their last album. "Idle Songs" highlights how well Spencer Krug's keyboard mixes with Mercer's surreal vocals and is a good introduction for anyone who is new to Frog Eyes. Then the band moves onto one of it's longer songs, "Caravan Breakers, they Prey on the Weak and the Old". It's 7 and half minutes of crescendo's and fades, something that Frog Eyes seems to be in love with. The track always keeps you on your toes, as the constant change in pace makes it quite listenable. The next song "Stockades" (the title has the quotes included), pulls Krug off the synthesizer, puts him on a standard piano, and is a catchy, almost pop like song. This is perhaps the closest thing that Frog Eyes will ever make to a radio single. "Reform the Countryside" is another standard song for the band, nothing too memorable (then again, Frog Eyes is so strange, it's hard to say that anything they do isn't memorable). Then comes "The Policy Merchant, the Silver Bay" which is an acoustic track that puts all the pressure on Mercer's deranged vocals. He takes this track and really shows off his singing, giving the finger to anyone who thinks his voice is nothing more than a gimmick. The next two songs has the title split between them, the first being "Evil Energy, the III twin of..." which is then followed by "...Eagle Energy". This split title just helps to show off extreme difference in these two songs, the former being full of energy and has a catchy synthesizer in the background, while the second is slow and plodding, composed mostly of vocals over a piano and a violin. With the final track "My Boats Go" being nothing more than an extended outro, the song that truly ends the album is "Bushels". This track is packed with little nuances and even with it's 9 minute running time, it never gets old. It's also notable because a good amount of the track, Mercer's vocals are actually understandable, thus his skills as a poetic lyricist are finally able to be shown off.Anyone who is looking for great indie band that sounds like nothing you've heard before should be sure to check out Frog Eyes. _Tears of the Valedictorian_ would be a great place to start, as I don't believe Frog Eyes will ever put out an album that is "widely accessible". Just a side not for those who closely follow the indie genre: Spencer Krug, the Frog Eyes keyboardist, is one of the vocalists and song writers for the up and coming indie-rock band Wolf Parade, so anyone who is a fan of them should be doubly certain to give Frog Eyes a look, if nothing more than to see where Krug got his start.Overall Score: 4.5/5-Dappy