On March 20, America's favorite vegan rocker Theodore Francis Leo, backed by his bandmates, returned to the indie-punk rock scene with his fifth album in eight years, "Living With The Living". Like previous records, "Living With The Living" combines punk grooves and brash guitar riffs with intelligent lyrics and interesting vocals to create a sound that, despite not varying greatly over the course of the album's hour-long run, manages to keep the listener engaged.
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, who played at Dartmouth two springs ago, have managed to capture hearts and slowly build a fan base over their short existence. Considered by many to be the standard bearer for intellectual rock, they don't disappoint on the new record, littering the album with profound lyrics and social commentary. Despite seeming more like a compilation than a continuous and fluid album, "Living With The Living" represents a positive step for the band.
Indeed, Ted Leo and his prescription-filling friends have put together a solidly enjoyable album. The record isn't a large departure from the group's previous catalog, but also doesn't have many flaws. "Living With The Living" survives its few unfortunate cuts to please old and new Ted Leo fans alike.
As usual with Ted Leo's albums, "Living" thrives on a general sense of not taking itself too seriously. When the band forgets this idea -- as with the unfortunate track "Bomb. Repeat. Bomb." -- the music suffers. Leo and company possess the ability to make serious songs that are still fun to listen to, but unfortunately only occasionally capitalize on this skill.
"Living With The Living" kicks off with a short throwaway intro track, "Fourth World War". The muddled, multilingual radio excerpts describing wartime quickly and deftly transition into the driving drums and aggressive guitar licks of the album's first single, "The Sons of Cain". This song grows on me every time I hear it, and has a habit of lodging itself in my head for days. If Leo could keep up the intensity of this lead track for the entire album, it would be an unstoppable rock classic.
As it is, "Sons of Cain" is joined by "La Costa Brava", "Who Do You Love" and "Some Beginner's Mind" on the list of the album's highlights. These tracks are great, and represent the best of Ted and the Pharmacists' capabilities. Diverse, poignant and entertaining, all at once.
The album has its share of low points, however, ranging from ill-advised to completely awful. An example of the previous, the disjointed "Army Bound" starts off with a pulsing drumbeat, but slows down quickly, giving Leo room to experiment with vocal melodies that seem to have little to nothing to do with the song's great guitar riffs. Along the same lines, "Colleen" quickly grows tiring, with predictable rhymes and rhythms dragging the song down.
The album's worst cut, the aforementioned "Bomb. Repeat. Bomb." begins with a reporter talking about President Eisenhower. It quickly moves to an annoyingly affected guitar riff, shouting chorus and overly preachy and simplistic lyrics about war. Like the explosives it describes, the song is an unpleasant assault.
When the dust settles, however, "Living With The Living" positions itself to add nicely to the repertoire of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. The album's top tracks are among the band's best, and will likely be the staples of live shows in the years to come. The album's worst seem like filler, doomed to be skipped on iPods and collect dust during live tours.
When Leo sticks to what he does best, the album triumphs. When he strays, the album follows. Perhaps a few more years will allow Ted Leo and the Pharmacists to develop a newer sound that really works. Until then, let's hope the rockers stick to rocking.
