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You have to give it up to Toronto’s Rock Plaza Central; not only have they just finished their new album, but they managed to make it the most long-winded title: At the Moment of Our Most Needing or If Only They Could Turn Around, They Would Know They Were Not Alone. Yet again, it’s a record that begs to be listened to from start to finish, and if you make it the entire way through the album, you’re destined to be rewarded.
“Oh I Can” creates an emphatic opener worthy of grabbing the listener’s immediate attention. Slowly, almost inaudibly, percussion sounds inch along the recording, creating a tension which begs the band to let it all loose. And they do, chanting out the song’s title in gang vocals, before singer Chris Eaton focuses a little bit more on the traditional verse tactics. And before you know it, you feel as if you CAN too. Then the song goes off into the distance, replaced instead by an instrumental number.
This is one of the more noticeable additions to this album, as Eaton and Co. clearly worked to construct a concise album with all the pieces ornately put down with purpose. Every song carefully melts into the next, flowing like a river through an orchestral valley in the country of Americana. It’s here that you see the band share a lot of resemblance to Theater Fire. “Them That are Good and Them That are Bad” is a song that uses layer upon layer of musicianship and craftwork to carefully flesh out every bit of the song; this is a song that exemplifies the band doing their best work to date.
While Chris Eaton’s voice might steer some listeners in the wrong direction for it’s cross between Jeff Mangum and Will Johnson, it definitely falls directly in line with the patchwork of the band. String instruments are abundant, as well as various horn elements, and non-traditional instruments such as a banjo play a great role in the hodge-podge construction of this album. Sure, it lies somewhere in line with the folk/americana aesthetic, but there is more at work here. You really get the feeling that Eaton has put a lot of thought into the composition of every inch of song, much as he would his novels, of which he has written two. Interestingly, there aren’t a lot of stand-out moments on this album, just a lot of great craftsmanship and organization; in the end, that makes up for everything, as the record is as complete an album as they come, filled with beauty and inspiration.
[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/07-them-that-are-good-and-them-that-are-bad.mp3]
Download: Rock Plaza Central – Them That are Good and Them That are Bad [MP3]
I’ve been feeling really nostalgic lately about my Emo days in high school and college so I thought the hottest Austin emo band Mineral would be a solid choice for our From the Closet. Mineral were only around for about 4 years and only put out two full LPs, both of which superb additions to the then trendy Emo genre. After their break up in 1998, Chris Simpson went on to form The Gloria Record and now fronts the Austin folk-pop band Zookeeper. The song I’ve got for you is “& Serenading” which appears on the bands second LP EndSerenading. It’s long been one of my favorites from the late 90s emo genre.
