No label can hold them down

Bitter battles between artists and their labels are the stuff of legends, but they're also a sad reality of today’s music industry. Indianapolis-based Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s learned that early in their career.

The eight-piece recently ran into issues with Epic, their new major-label home. Upon recording their second full-length, the band faced opposition from label heads about the selection and sequencing of their new album Animal!. 

Rather than shrinking under the pressure, the band worked out a new deal: release their version of the album alongside the label’s choice under the names Animal! and Not Animal, respectively. The band’s recording would only be available for vinyl and digital release while the label’s would be used for the CD release.

Although an unfortunate incident, Animal!/Not Animal proves to be a goldmine for the group’s fans. Offering nearly double the amount of material (both versions sport 12 songs, but only five are heard on both), the pseudo-double album is packed with beautiful, string-laden chamber-pop orchestrations that occasionally harp on folk roots.

Of the two, Not Animal starts out stronger, as “A Children’s Crusade on Acid” rolls in with a menacing piano/acoustic guitar stroll and sparse yet effective percussive beats that lend to the song’s hollow, looming sound.

Building on that momentum is “Pages Written on a Wall,” a song only found on the label release, but one that should have been on both. Starting off beautifully, this surprise of a song grows until it kicks into gear with charging guitars mimicked by piano and roaring trumpets that ultimately save it from oblivion.

“I Am a Lightning Rod,” a standout from Animal!, is stormy and unsettled in its arrangement, but a marching bass line parades in toward the song’s end, bringing about a sense of completion and composure to the otherwise haunting and shaky composition.

Although sometimes their attempts at lavishness end up making some songs blend together, one cannot deny that Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s save themselves simply by being a solid group of songsmiths, great at the art of crafting bundles of evocative and oh-so-lovely compositions.