Department of Eagles’ lovely 2008 album,
In Ear Park, was such a breakthrough for
Daniel Rossen and Fred Nicolaus that it could be easy to forget that not only did the duo have a body of work before its release, but they tried to record a second album years before. The straightforwardly named
Archive 2003-2006 captures the attempts
Department of Eagles made over those years to make the follow-up to
The Cold Nose (aka The Whitey on the Moon LP). Despite the scattered nature of the recording sessions and the varying states of completion these songs are in,
Rossen and Nicolaus found ways to make this more than just a slapped-together collection of odds and sods. The “Practice Room Sketches” -- ghostly traces of a piano melody here, a skeletal song there -- link together the more fleshed-out tracks and add an open-ended wistfulness to the whole affair. Surprisingly though, most of
Archive’s songs are closer to finished than not, and several of them rival the tracks that made it onto
Department of Eagles’ official albums. “Flip” and “While We’re Young”’s brisk, symphonic folk-pop have just as much hooky flair as “No One Does It Like You”; meanwhile, “Golden Apple”’s slowly unfolding space lullaby is so unique that it’s a shame it didn’t get the full
Department of Eagles treatment. However, the band did recycle parts of these songs into other tracks: the banjo melody from the pretty but somewhat disjointed “Deadly Disclosure” ended up on the
In Ear Park song “Balmy Night.” As always, the
Grizzly Bear comparisons are inevitable, but
Archive falls closer to Yellow House’s rustic experiments than to Veckatimest’s multifaceted dazzle (which makes sense, since
Rossen joined the band in 2004, right in the middle of these sessions). Though songs like “Grand Army Plaza” and “Brightest Minds” -- both of which are great examples of
Department of Eagles’ oddly nostalgic sound -- fell by the wayside, they’re too good not to be heard.
Archive 2003-2006 is well worth a listen for
Department of Eagles and
Grizzly Bear fans, especially those intrigued by how albums get made -- or don’t get made, as the case may be. ~ Heather Phares