Manchester Orchestra is neither from Manchester, nor is it an
orchestra—although many of this Atlanta band’s confessional
alternative-rock tunes feature strings, keyboards and bells as
ingredients in a broad, symphonic sound.
On its second full-length album, Manchester Orchestra layers guitars
and more guitars, like flights of angels or squadrons of fighter
planes, over dense compositions in which singer/songwriter/guitarist
Andy Hull wails at banshee level without descending into shrill
tantrums.
In the explosive “Shake It Out,” spiky guitar melodies, jittery
rhythms and Hull’s yelp recall the underrated 1980s band That Petrol
Emotion. This song also demonstrates that Manchester Orchestra knows
the value of dynamics, capably traveling between hard and soft, fast
and slow, and loud and quiet.
Many of the songs feel personal, even nakedly honest, such as the
apparent existentialist manifesto “The Only One,” which opens the album
with Hull singing, “I am the only one that thinks I’m going crazy.”
Hull and company always have a trick or two hidden up their
collective sleeve. On the brawling “Pride,” the band experiments with
lurching grunge, as if Black Sabbath collided with Soundgarden. And
then there’s the closing track, “The River,” which is 11 1/2 minutes of
folk, alt-country, chamber pop and thick Swans-style drama.
This article appears in May 21-27, 2009.