ALBUM REVIEW; ...AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
So Divided
Interscope Records
2.5/5

The new album from the band with the longest name ever seems as long as the band’s name. Oh, wait; ir's only 46 minutes.

So Divided, from Trail of Dead, was never supposed to happen. Rumors flew over an expected breakup after their critically panned previous release, Worlds Apart. Worlds was a commercial failure as well, selling only 60,000 albums in the United States, and it was a large contributor to the tension in the band.

When the band started recording for So Divided, it did so under the impression that it was to be an EP, and not a proper album, and it shows. Some songs are much stronger than others are.

The album is too scattershot to reveal a prevailing theme, with mall punk (“Stand in Silence”) Oasis-inspired Brit-pop (title track “So Divided”) and 70’s classic rock (“Naked Sun”) each sounding good, but unfocused, and lacking in passion.

A halfhearted Guided By Voices cover of “Gold Heart Mountain Top Queen Directory” has the strings that the original hinted at, and it forces an emotion that should be implicit, not shoved down the throat of the listener.

Trail of Dead is still struggling to understand that it may never top its opus, 2002’s Sources, Tags and Codes. For the band to succeed at that level again, the guys have to just let loose, relax, and let the music flow. Forcing an album sounds as canned as the emotion put into it.