Readers of this blog know that I have a special place in my heart for dredg. Their albums Leitmotif, El Cielo, and Catch Without Arms have all inspired musicians and fans (like me) alike.

Now, dredg did not make an album just for you, they made an album that they felt best represented where they are as a band. The question for you is, are you willing to accept the change?

To say there has been a lot of anticipation for dredg’s fourth album, The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion, is an understatement. Having enlisted young and gifted producer Matt Radosevich and inspiring their album title and theme from Salman Rushdie’s essay Imagine There’s No Heaven: A Letter to the 6 Billionth Citizen, the band already makes tantalizing remarks about sonic reinvention. With that, their fanbase has been curious (to say the least) to hear what the ‘new’ dredg might sound like. The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion definitely makes some departures from the band’s usual formula, which happens to be one of the more experimental alt-rock blueprints of recent years. The plangent chords, emotive melodies, haunting vocals and erratic gentleness remain, but dredg have gone out on several limbs here, returning the instrumental tracks (“Drunk Side”, “RUOK?”), using western barroom brawl and free-jazz groove elements (“Mouring This Morning”, “Lightswitch”), and constantly layering their tracks with various instruments and sounds that one would have to listen carefully to catch. Some tracks like “Cartoon Showroom” and “Long Days and Vague Clues” shine well on their own, but find awkward placement and don’t blend well with the album’s overall theme. The conclusion to this album is one of the most powerful in recent memory with the 6-minute long “Quotes,” epic instrumental “Down To The Cellar” and the heart wrenching yet hopeful “Stamp Of Origin: Horizon.” The old dredg still shine through (see tracks like “Quotes” and the title song, “Pariah”) but even their classic sound feels more muscular and confident. The band’s new flourishes, cosmetic and self-conscious as they may be, are enough to make The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion a welcome break from the old routine.

B+

Purchase ‘The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion’ .

dredg – Quotes

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