Austin Sound

Like any well-greased democracy, the governing body of the Live Music Capital of the World is prone to violent shifts as new members flirt with stardom and old standards are cast to the wayside. So as we now find our creative enclave newly beset by the challenges of violent shootings, disruptive ordinances and socio-demographic shifts in the downtown area, so we also find bright new leaders of our cultural traditions. The Soldier Thread – the dark horse candidate of 2007 – now have legitimate claims on seeking that title. Hitting the #2 spot at Waterloo with this debut album and playing a number of high-profile shows in support of it, the band’s rise to prominence since the modest release of their debut EP Fevers and Fireworks has been undeniable. Debut full-length Shapes gives us both reassuring and troubling reasons as to why.

As anyone who has had the pleasure of attending one of the band’s live shows can attest to, the anthemic melodies of The Soldier Thread are blindingly perfect. A style that pushes every moment to the height of its musical potential can be difficult to manage (and indeed many “anthemic” bands falter when the grandiose is suddenly transformed to bland noise before their very eyes), yet The Soldier Thread pack an arsenal of inventive tricks, stitching together soaring guitars and electronics, a string quartet and driving percussion with studio-precision. The result is a warm, lively album of fine-tuned melodies that careen through an ornately original soundscape, a welcomed answer to the hollow nonsense of the “build it louder” arms race of modern pop music.

The music of Shapes addresses all the shortcomings of Fevers and Fireworks, which shone with promise but often felt cold and lifeless, and proves The Soldier Thread an aware and dynamic outfit. Yet for all this improvement, serious lyrical shortcomings lurk just under the sheen of the surface riffs.

“All this rock ‘n roll is for you,” proclaims the album’s final track, and indeed most lines on the album seem directed at an underperforming significant other. While singing about Love is hardly a sin in itself, it’s dangerous territory that the band can’t manage to navigate as skillfully as they do the musical aspects of the album. The complex art of relationships has oft given rise to equally complex art that analyzes the unpredictable emotions coloring the communication between two (or more) lovers. But here the band lack the inventive spirit that makes their music so successful, and instead fall back on trite, underdeveloped metaphors.

“Criminals” falls victim to both knife imagery (“Your words are sharper than a knife. / To talk is laying down my life”) and uninspired lines like “When all your smiles are upside down / and all your dreams have come unwound,” whose ruinous first line upsets an otherwise interesting image of coiled dreams. Even the brilliant melodies of “Cannons” are reduced to mere fodder by tired themes in the underwhelming chorus (“It feels just like it did when you were young”) and a lack of development of the few conceits the song proposes (cannons and bombs, burying the hatchet, etc.). The contemplation of Love is a noble pursuit, but a line like “Open your chest, take out your heart / And leave it incomplete” (“In The Sky”) is hardly insightful commentary.

While these shortcomings risk gutting the musical prowess to a bravado shell, the music has strength such that it can easily be enjoyed independently – which may in itself be the more dangerous omen. As a first album, Shapes is a considerable musical triumph, and if The Soldier Thread can capitalize on the room left here for improvement, we very well may have leadership worth the scene it represents. But should the band abandon craft for masterfully sweet but ever-so-fleeting melodies, one has to wonder to what hollow aim that pact with the devil leads.

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