And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead have had an extreme career arc. Their 2002 major label debut Source Tags & Codes was an era-defining work of anthemic indie rock - one of those precious high school records I could blast for weeks on end in my '89 Mazda 323, driving from one South Jersey diner to another, getting home late at night and highly caffeinated, reading LiveJournals until 4 a.m. and drifting off to sleep with synesthetic visions of guitar riffs crashing in my head.
Then there was last year's slick Worlds Apart, which critics panned and flopped commercially. Compared to its predecessor, the record was just OK - disaster for the Soulseek/BitTorrent generation.
On So Divided, Conrad Keely and the boys have opted to play the formal variation card. They're sounding a bit less raw, a bit more reflective, and a bit more inclined to take the edge off by breaking out the piano and horns. It's no surprise that the band sounds most natural in its grandiose Source Tags mode (see "Stand In Silence" and "So Divided"), but some improbable album highlights include a cover of Guided By Voices' "Gold Heart Mountain Top Queen Directory" and the ludicrously New Pornographers-esque "Eight Days Hell." And the genre dabbling rolls on: the sedate but successful "Witches Web" is evocative of Sea Change-era Beck, while the blues-influenced "Naked Sun" is passable, but tedious upon repeat listening.
Most of this record is solidly written and masterfully executed. But I can't wholeheartedly recommend it, and it is precisely .Trail of Dead's bombastic high schoolish sensibility that is to blame. The sort of cathartic, over-the-top, utterly sincere anthems that were so liberating in 11th grade now come across as borderline banal. So Divided would make a great Christmas gift for your diner-hopping, LiveJournal-addicted little brother, but it's probably not worth purchasing for yourself.
