Partisan, The Gothic and the Gospel (4 x 4 review)

Artist: Partisan
Title: The Gothic and the Gospel
Label: Reason Y Records (2006)
Genre: Rock
Rotation: Heavy, actually

As soon as the African folk chant of the untitled introduction (1) turned into Loud Emo Guitars, I started out thinking “oh God, here we go,” but then my inner 18-year-old raised her angry little purple-dyed head and told grown-up me to get the hell over herself. The music, more than half of which is an homage to DC punk bands and what I understand is now called “emo,” isn’t really what I’m into these days, but just when you think that’s all that you’re going to hear, this 7-piece Atlanta band will show you just how wrong you are, sprawling all over the proverbial musical map with reckless and pretty enjoyable abandon.

“Screaming Man” (2), as the title might suggest, sets us up to give in to our rage as the album progresses, but then they have . . . depth! Range! They aren’t afraid of sounding smart, or of unusual percussion (especially bongos), or of letting us see how sophisticated and carefully crafted some of the musical passages are (“Yoruba and Oglala” (7), for example, is a great instrumental). “Money Changes Everything” (8) might as well be on a recent pop record, and “Farther North” (10) is a piano-driven dirge. “Georgia Goddamn” (4) starts with a charming little spoken word story about going to shows at 16 and continues interspersed with hopes of going to shows for the rest of one’s life, “as long as my body doesn’t give out.” Amen, brother.

Indecent: 2, 5, 6
Recommended tracks: 15, 16, 7, 8, 13, 4 (full of goddamns), [6-IND], [5-IND], [2-IND], 3, 14