[rating=3.50]
Countless bands, upon releasing a new album, say that they’ve finally made the album they knew they were capable of making. The guys in Tea Leaf Green have invoked this phrase in regards to their latest, Radio Tragedy, and they may actually be right. Tea Leaf Green are capable of far stranger things than they have previously let on, and on Radio Tragedy they finally cut loose and embrace their inner weird. Their solid, homespun rock outlook is intact, but this album infuses everything with bold splashes of color and bursts of energy. Perhaps Radio Tragedy really is the band’s finest studio moment, or maybe it is simply such a marked improvement over their previous release, the mundane Looking West, that it just feels that way.
Opening track “All Washed Up” sounds nothing like most listeners would expect from the band, full of rolling New Orleans-influenced drums, heavily effected vocals, and sizzling instrumental breaks. The middle section involves a demented collage of sound that gives way to a wild flurry of solos from guitarist Josh Clark and keyboardist Trevor Garrod. “Easy to be Your Lover” has a typical TLG sound in the verses, but Beatlesque calliope sounds and a Bee gees-style falsetto chorus give it a unique stamp and the climax has a churning, psychedelic feel reminiscent of The Flaming Lips. There’s almost as much going on in “Easy to be Your Lover” as there was in the entirety of Looking West from an entertainment standpoint, and the album doesn’t stop there. The mark of The Beatles, in particular the late George Harrison, is heard all over the plunking bass and devotional guitar in “Sleep Paralysis,” and “Germinating Seed” amps up the requisite TLG formula with groovy percussion and fierce, focused instrumental work. There’s hazy, swirling modern rock in “You’re My Star” and “Arise,” cosmic country music in “My Oklahoma Home” and the very Hot Tuna-like “Honey Bee,” upbeat roots rock in “Fallen Angel,” and dramatic, melancholy synthesized density in the album-closing “Nothing Changes.”
Radio Tragedy defies expectations while maintaining the core Tea Leaf Green sound. The band fuses their strong songwriting foundation with fearless experimentation, and the result is their most listenable, engaging studio work yet.
