...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Worlds Apart

…And You Will Know Us by the Trail Of Dead have always offered listeners plenty of distractions from what really matters. Choirs, strings, operatic overtures, the juxtaposition of brainy self-importance and primal expression and generally bratty image have led most detractors to label them as pretentious. Worlds Apart does little to dispel this notion and carries all of the above traits in spades (if these types of things inflame you, by all means stay far away from the 14-page essay on developments in Western music that accompanies the deluxe edition). If you can ignore these distractions, you’ll be rewarded greatly for sticking with this album. Worlds Apart moves further from the noisy punk mess of their earliest work but doesn’t necessarily take them in a new direction. Instead, it fits somewhere on the same plane as their 2002 breakout Source Tags & Codes. It does, however, take a few more chances than ST&C did, all of which appear near the beginning and end of the album. The choir chanting of “Ode to Isis” leads things off followed by the plodding and drawn out “Will You Smile Again?”. Toward the end we get the strangely effective string-heavy instrumental waltz “To Russia my Homeland,” the slow staccato of “The Best” (which opens with and immediately throws away the best riff on the album) and the dream pop closer “The Lost City of Refuge.” These ventures are hit and miss but are welcome as an alternative to complacency. It is the middle section of Worlds Apart that impresses the most. “The Rest Will Follow,” “Caterwaul,” “A Classic Arts Showcase,” and “Let it Dive” serve together as a consistently catchy and solid stretch of their best alternative rock to date. They ebb; they flow; they’re fierce; they’re fluid but more simplistically, they rock. Despite the differing directions, all of these tracks flow in and out of each other very smoothly, almost giving the effect of a single complete thought. Worlds Apart marks some notable changes for Trail of Dead. They seemed to have settled on one vocalist where the previously rotated between three, and the manic punk flare-ups that dotted Source Tags & Codes have all but disappeared. This is definitely a band in motion, but forget about where they were or where they’re going and enjoy this for where they are right now: Near the top of the modern rock heap. [www.trailofdead.com]