I didn’t want to do this at first, but the temptation was too great. Yes- about a month or so ago I was Googling, data searching, web surfing, whatever you wanna call it, Local H’s new album 12 Angry Months. Looking for mostly reviews and articles also happened to lead me to pre-order sites and chain-store sites showcasing the new album (although most of these stores DIDN’T actually end up carrying the record). Those lousy bastards over at Best Buy somehow convinced me to listen to tiny snippets of [almost] each track; it must have something to do with their color choice, blue and yellow scream “Free Preview HERE!”.
I hadn’t done this with any of the bands other albums to date, and I don’t like doing it with ANY band really. Naturally, I was pretty disappointed in myself. What I wasn’t disappointed in was the promise these songs showed me. “The Local H universe is expanding”, I thought. This was an exciting concept in relation to the road ahead. My friends asked me over and over again what I’d heard from the record so far, I always sheepishly replied: “Actually I’ve heard about 15 seconds from almost every track” in utter shame. “What did you think?” Always the standard follow-up. Every single time someone asked me this my “sum of all parts” equaled something along the lines of: “I like it. About half the songs are unlike anything the band’s ever done. The other half is standard Local H, the Local H you and I love”.
As I listen to 12 Angry Months more and more, part of me thinks this initial assessment of the album was wrong. The truth is this doctrine could apply to each INDIVIDUAL song, not just the album at large. Within each song, half of it (weather musically, production-wise, lyrically, etc) sounds like the Local H I’ve grown to love as my favorite Rock & Roll band. The other half expands that sound: Oooh’s, percussion “clickers”, slide mandolin, piano/organ/keys, or a totally new guitar/bass sound and dynamic. From a production standpoint, the album falls somewhere between Here Comes The Zoo and Whatever Happened To PJ Soles.
Each song is clearly it’s own individual song, and there aren’t any interlude-type tracks (ala 5000 Scovilles). The songs do flow well together, but besides a wonderful transition into 24 Hour Breakup (and a same end/start riff) when a song ends, it’s clear, and the new one quickly takes over. What I just described feels similar to the way a year goes by, which was clearly intentional here. And although the overall concept isn’t my favorite they’ve done (Here Comes The Zoo’s themes kick ass), it does continue the Local H story by trying something new. This is a band who is notorious for producing these amazing concept albums, and the new album lives up to that. Everything about it fits nicely into the way a year-of-life works, and a breakup especially. The first song exemplifies this: in the beginning it’s reflective, the anger hasn’t come yet; once it does, it degrades to immature arguing. “I know you took my records you bitch. You didn’t even like most of ‘em til you met me!”
My favorites right now are The One With Kid, White Belt Boys, Summer Of Boats, Taxi Cabs, Machine Shed Wrestling, and Hand To Mouth. But this is sure to change. I’ve listened to the album straight through around 7 or 8 times now, and once on random. I’m still very enthralled by it; I don’t see myself getting tired of it anytime soon. I can’t wait to hear some of these songs live this summer.
-Sonny
