MOG

School of Language - Sea from Shore
Thrill Jockey, 2008
7 out of 10

Two stereo-separated, constant and synchronized recitations of monotone vowel sounds from the UK's David Brewis, the almost-fully-solo artist that makes up School of Language (and one-third of the on-hiatus Field Music), run along the first and final five minutes of Sea from Shore. It's an idea torn from mid-20th century new music, and though it's the only idea here that has been, it speaks to the fresh attitude with which Brewis attacks the ragtag assemblage called "indie rock arrangements" as we've known them since the mid-'90s. It's also listenable because the timbre of Brewis's voice — a pleasing, well-rounded and well-enunciated tenor — is inherently so, and so it is an element I am willing to take for granted and barely discuss.

Here is an album that I admire more than Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (last year's exemplary "smart-alec indie" record) in most ways except the part in the middle where my interest level drops for a few songs, and so it is more or less its equal. Said songs that start and end Sea from Shore are "Rockist Parts 1 and 2" and "Rockist Parts 3 and 4" ("1" and "4" are different versions of the same song). This is a strong action and buoys the record as a piece, despite the regrettably skippable middle trio. The album's "playlist tracks" are the instrumental "Rockist Part 2," which soothes the beast in me that craves a simple, well-crafted, percussive studio piece begging to be dropped into a film soundtrack; and "Disappointment '99," a beat-distorted rock song ranking alongside the finest rock moves of 2007 and recalling a golden era of Dischord bands like Smart Went Crazy or the Dismemberment Plan.

Though one could live with the thesis that Sea from Shore is comprised of a set of well-performed indie rock ideas, with their references traveling back to Archers of Loaf and Pavement, stopping along the way to Jim O'Rourke and other previously-mentioned old friends, it's possible to see the album from another perspective. Forgive me for speaking of the Beatles; I don't see how their being the most influential band in history doesn't stop them from being the most over-referenced group in history as well, so I try to avoid it, but here I can't avoid it. The lull of tracks five through seven can be explained with the thought occurring to me, as rarely as it does, "I could easily be listening to Abbey Road instead of these songs." There, Brewis introduces an odd approach where at times, elements of the basic instrumental arrangement, though never the vocal, could easily be performed by the members of the Beatles in their final stages, with their accompanying aesthetic. It's not a total homage, but it's reminiscent enough to be an easy distraction and a hallmark of the milquetoast quality of these tunes.

Then he does something funny by utterly perfecting the approach. Track eight, "This Is No Fun," is a complete trip wherein the 1970 Beatles arrangement is both completely faithful — really, just imagine it, John and George on guitar, Paul on bass, Ringo on drums, with that backwards reverb, that lush acoustic motif, the unrelated coda — and also could be an utter fluke, just as solid and heavy-hitting as any exceptional modern power pop. Though "Rockist Part 2" and "Disappointment '99" are still the record's "hits," the novelty value of "This Is No Fun" is nonetheless unrivaled by the rest of the material here; I have not heard such a successful stylistic coup of this era of Beatles music, and its success as a song that stands apart from this rubric can be measured by the relative failures of the trio of songs leading up to it.

Really, just to cut through the chaff, School of Language's debut, Sea from Shore, is on Thrill Jockey Records, so in truth, you should probably already want to hear it. Luckily, it's worth keeping, too, particularly for anyone fond of Field Music. It is the hope that with more toil on Mr. Brewis's part comes more music and maybe even a more consistently original effort; his intelligence has already been substantially proven, and it's early yet.

-Spencer Owen