Stoner-rock album lives up to the hype

Source Tags & Codes\n... And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead\nInterscope Records\nCertainly the most hyped release since last year's Strokes and White Stripes records, the third album and major label debut from Texas' ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead doesn't fail to deliver on its enormous buzz. But instead of looking to the New Yorks and Detroits of the 1960s and '70s for inspiration, the Trail revisits British college campuses of the late '80s, when shoegazer bands like Ride and My Bloody Valentine were constructing impenetrable walls of sound using a few effects pedals and amps that go up to 11, this with a little hardcore punk thrown in.\nSource Tags & Codes is a propulsive, explosive affair that relies on densely layered guitars fighting for the upper hand with the shouty, anguished singing of Jason Reece and Conrad Keely (Rule No. 1 in the Shoegazer Handbook: Mix the vocals low). On the first few listens, the songs tend to blow by, all angst and feedback with no breathing room in between. But upon repeated exposure, the album's skin of visceral intensity peels back to reveal...well, more intensity, sure, but something human and vulnerable as well.\nSome might be a little put-off by the sometimes over-the-top emotion of the lyrics ("What is forgiveness? / It's just a dream" goes one call-and-response section), but it's light years ahead of your average emo verse (no references to seasons or sweaters, as far as I can tell), and there are some surprisingly affecting moments, particularly the sweeping chorus of "Heart in the Hand of the Matter" and the coming-down finale of the title track.\nWho knows how long the Trail and fellow rock anti-heros Queens of the Stone Age will survive on a label that counts Fred Durst as a Vice President? Source Tags & Codes is not instantly accessible, but it is instantly attention-grabbing, and it takes more than a few chances -- mostly with successful results. The future looks promising.\n

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