There Will Be Blood Tonight marks the debut of young Seattle trio
the Divorce. Led by the vocals and guitar of Shane Berry, the band also includes bassist Jimmy Curran and drummer Kyle Risan. Like their contemporaries in
Dolour and
OK Go,
the Divorce cross the spiky, corrosive guitar lines of early new wave with that genre's jaunty organ, intersects the angular melodies of indie rock's heyday, and chops off the end of each sharply rendered lyrical couplet, singeing the exposed skin with youthful naïveté. Album opener "The Man Moan" lurches into gear with shredding guitar, distorted bass, and a humming organ. "At night I pray that I'll get off," Berry preens, only to revel cleverly in his own self-loathing as he drops the punchline: "The whole next day I hide from God." Later, "Samoa's Revenge" heists the theme to Batman for a first-person rant about...what? Who knows -- fashion models, drugs, debauchery? They're all potential answers, but for
the Divorce, real meaning is less important than stylized florescence.
Britt Daniel's miniature anthems to neurosis come to mind repeatedly during There Will be Blood Tonight. Even though
Spoon is much more mature a group,
the Divorce might be, could be, a peach-fuzz version of the venerated Austin combo. After all, talent is boldly on display throughout
Blood, from the crunchy guitar that drowns out a Weird Science organ ("The Academy") to anthemic chorus salvos that cleverly mask simplistic lyrics ("Redcoats"). The Divorce could come to groom a thick beard of smart, ultramodern indie rock, but at this point, their potential is just sprouting over a perfectly quivering lip. ~ Johnny Loftus