It’s been a long time since we’ve heard from Brooklyn’s The Davenports. But the new album finally arrives and it’s worth the wait. Lead by frontman Scott Klass he deftly filled the album with terrific hooks and clever lyrical stories, similar in style to Fountains of Wayne. The guitar heaviness of the past albums have given way to quirky character studies and great percussion. “Christopher Starts” has a generous helping of inner monologue and infectious beat. Lots of fast paced tunes are at the albums start, and they don’t seem to be related at first. By time I got to the handclaps and tambourine chorus in “Don’t Cry Mary” a story begins to emerge.
This is an excellent album, where every song advances the narrative point of view. Anxiety and paranoia are on display on “Something’s Gonna Get Us” with typewriter sound effects and “You Can’t Drink Anymore” has an impressive guitar lead. The crux of the album seems to be “Figure Me Out,” a strong piano melody with full strings backing Scott’s vocal. The confessional tone of the story is framed out by each song. For me it took a few listens to appreciate the details in each melodic track, not everything here is instantly sticky and the tempo on a few tunes are too similar. But there’s no filler here either, overall it’s not too early to add this to my “best of 2011” list.
