Stealthily dropping while soft rock hits from Alicia Keys, Janet Jackson and Matchbox Twenty were ruling the roost, Tragic Show is the first and only full length product of the union between singer-songwriter David Ryan Harris (think Dan Wilson if he hadn't met up with Adele), formerly of Follow For Now cult-fame; drummer Kenny Cresswell, who went on to work with Avril Lavigne (remember her??) and Candlemass; Johnny Colt, former bassist for The Black Crowes. Produced by Brendan O'Brien, who also worked with The Black Crowes and produced King's X's Dogman album, Tragic Show is one of the better obscure albums you might find in the $2 rack. As confident as any post-grunge mid-00's band banking on a middle-school-dance-friendly power ballad to take them to the top but packing the songwriting and production heat of industry titans, Tragic Show is a master class in song craft that would make even Kevin Gilbert jealous.
Ballads seem to stick to supergroups more strongly than rubber cement to model car parts and Brand New Immortals are no strangers to the sappy stuff. Late album slow-burners like "Satellites" and "Ill Conceived" would normally ruin any semblance of momentum that the previous tracks had accumulated but... well, Tragic Show has more hooks than your local Bass Pro Shop and even these mid-tempo pieces fail to bring the record down (particularly the spot at 5:10~ of "Ill Conceived" which is straight-up Zeppelin worship) as the atmosphere built by them never feels fake or out of place. Coupled with O'Brien's talent/obsession with creating and recording incredibly full band sounds, the guitar and drums thankfully never suddenly evaporate as they tend to do during other bands' softer moments. It isn't until the trio really opens up the throttle on more strident numbers like "Blacksun", "High Time" and "Let Me Up" that O'Brien's production really pays dividends though, as the fullness of these tracks elevate the material which would've been strong enough on its own. The term "heavy melody" was originally coined by producer Sam Taylor to describe King's X's early sound but I find it applies to Tragic Show as well as these pieces, in particular the aforementioned 3 fatter tunes, orbit around choruses that are downright bouncing. I still tend to think that the slower tunes drag what a might have been an utterly spotless rock record down a notch, but they have been growing on - in particular "Satellites" and "Ill Conceived", which I find is a lovely send off to the whole thing.
After all is said and down, Tragic Show is a stereotypical rough gem: arresting when held up to the proper light, but not without some rough edges.I emphatically recommend it for anyone interested in an album that arrived a couple of years too late to really make a splash while still bearing the mark of top-notch writing and production.
Ballads seem to stick to supergroups more strongly than rubber cement to model car parts and Brand New Immortals are no strangers to the sappy stuff. Late album slow-burners like "Satellites" and "Ill Conceived" would normally ruin any semblance of momentum that the previous tracks had accumulated but... well, Tragic Show has more hooks than your local Bass Pro Shop and even these mid-tempo pieces fail to bring the record down (particularly the spot at 5:10~ of "Ill Conceived" which is straight-up Zeppelin worship) as the atmosphere built by them never feels fake or out of place. Coupled with O'Brien's talent/obsession with creating and recording incredibly full band sounds, the guitar and drums thankfully never suddenly evaporate as they tend to do during other bands' softer moments. It isn't until the trio really opens up the throttle on more strident numbers like "Blacksun", "High Time" and "Let Me Up" that O'Brien's production really pays dividends though, as the fullness of these tracks elevate the material which would've been strong enough on its own. The term "heavy melody" was originally coined by producer Sam Taylor to describe King's X's early sound but I find it applies to Tragic Show as well as these pieces, in particular the aforementioned 3 fatter tunes, orbit around choruses that are downright bouncing. I still tend to think that the slower tunes drag what a might have been an utterly spotless rock record down a notch, but they have been growing on - in particular "Satellites" and "Ill Conceived", which I find is a lovely send off to the whole thing.
After all is said and down, Tragic Show is a stereotypical rough gem: arresting when held up to the proper light, but not without some rough edges.I emphatically recommend it for anyone interested in an album that arrived a couple of years too late to really make a splash while still bearing the mark of top-notch writing and production.
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