Eisley Steps Forward, Into “The Valley”
*Oops, forgot to post this one. Here’s my March column in The Underground.
Man Up; Dig Some “Girl Rock”
I’ll admit: like most red-blooded male Americans, I know way less about female musicians than I probably should.
Don’t get me wrong—it’s not that I’m sexist. It’s more, who has the time? After a day full of pumping iron, pounding red meat, strapping on some flannel and chopping wood, I think I speak for most guys when I say I’m pretty wiped. Sure, maybe I can squeeze in a few Steveweisers and a couple games of Black Ops before passing out, but that’s only in the NFL (and my fantasy team’s) offseason. Otherwise I have more pressing responsibilities.
But in all seriousness, it’s hard out there for female rockers. To be noticed, they have to do something different, be something weird. And even then, if the end result sounds pretty, most male radio listeners aren’t going to want to be associated with it. And that’s a shame, especially for a group as interesting as Eisley.
With influences in bands like Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Ben Folds and Neutral Milk Hotel, it’s really no wonder this Texas-based family band (4 DuPree siblings and a cousin) is a little eccentric. Traditionally they write in fairy tales, soaking each track in a kind of fantastical brand of melancholy, as if we’re being taken by the hand while listening and led excitedly through the moonlit woods of their collective imagination.
Three LPs into their career and Eisley’s sound in The Valley has definitely maintained a certain Alice in Wonderland vibe (“Mr. Moon,” title track). With sisters Sherri and Stacy at the vocal helm, we never stray far from lullaby. What they do is pretty, without a doubt, but that’s more a byproduct of the moods they go for than the ultimate goal.
In the band’s best tracks, they achieve a seamless combination of tones, a sort of pitch-perfect vocal harmony mixed with something eerie.
Most concerned with painting dreamscapes, the band uses its assets wisely, never cheaply or cutely or merely for ballads. Coming at it from a just-vocal-harmony angle, Eisley’s Sherri/Stacy combo is probably my favorite since Kath/Cetera from Chicago’s “golden era.” Big words, I know, but that’s how much I love the contrast.
The Valley, however, is its own record.
Removed four years since Eisley’s last release, the album is their darkest yet, decorated in grief, yearning, and even some orchestral stuff. It’s spun from tragedy, not whimsy: divorce, breakups, a split from the band’s longtime label. And the heavy emotions that accompany those things are palpable, tending to take a sometimes unwelcome creative precedent.
It’s not that every Eisley song should be all magic and bats with butterfly wings, but this hyper-direct lyric approach, although angrier and arguably more “adult,” can infect song style, making a couple tracks on The Valley feel a little bit too much like emo (“Smarter”), not Eisley.
Still, this is an album the band “had” to write—a low point between peaks, as the title suggests. And although the “meh” moments are minority, even while they’re happening I can’t totally dismiss them—the voices leading the rhythms are just too entrancing. I can listen to these girls sing anything; they trade off and carry each other, creating a space with their music that lives somewhere between the nurturing hum of a bedtime storyteller and the brilliantly lit landscapes of linen-clad unconsciousness.
It’s in this space where this young band transcends expectation, makes more than wimpy “girl rock.” There’s a lot of talent here but more importantly there’s ambition, peaking out like a specter from the peeling bark of an old sycamore, drifting through its dying leaves, rustling past them like reverb.
Listen/Watch:
This entry was posted on Sunday, April 10th, 2011 at 6:13 pm and is filed under cd reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
