Margot and the Nuclear So & So's
Animal!/Not Animal
Review By Chris Drabick
Usually, it’s an over-abundance of quality material (perceived or otherwise) that allows an act to unveil the double album (or its dreaded cousin, two albums on the same day). Think Bruce Springsteen’s Human Touch and Lucky Town, both released on the same day in 1992, or Prince’s classic double album Sign o’ the Times. Indianapolis’ Margot and the Nuclear So & So’s have added a new wrinkle to the reason behind a double release: a spat with their new record label.
The band garnered a nice following after self-releasing its debut The Dust of Retreat, getting the attention of V2 Records for its re-release just in time for that label to fold. An unlikely band to wash up on a major, Margot found itself perhaps the luckiest of the former V2 acts by inking with Epic Records and commencing many months of work on its second record with producer Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Josh Ritter). The problems began with Epic’s objections to the finished product. After some negotiations, the two parties compromised in the form of separate releases; the band’s favorites make up Animal!, while Epic sanctioned the aptly titled Not Animal.
Who’s the winner in this battle royale? Frankly, both Margot and Epic could claim victory. The band is able to present itself as having oodles of artistic integrity, refusing to compromise its vision even in the face of potential lawsuits from the big, bad Major. The label gets a built-in marketing strategy, as well as twice the product. The losers, of course, are the band’s audience, as the two records repeat five tracks, leading fans to pay full price twice for records with only seven unique tracks.
The artistic question is which of the two got it right? That’s a thornier proposition, although it is pretty clear that Epic was objecting to the band’s misguided foray into Decemberists-like historical fiction type material in the form of Animal’s “Mariel’s Brazen Overture” and “There’s Talk of Mine Shafts.” Both records opt for an almost wholesale abandonment of the band’s previous tendency toward a Counting Crows sound, foregoing Retreat’s warm and folksy vibe (although Epic also seems to have opted for some moments that sound most like Retreat, especially the fine “Holy Cow”). The central preoccupation is pretty clearly Radiohead, as vocalist Richard Edwards does his best Thom Yorke on tracks like Animal’s “O’ What a Nightmare” and “Cold, Kind and Lemon Eyes” (one of the five repeated tracks). The eight-piece also presents a much noisier version of itself on the unfortunately tiled “Hello Vagina” and “I Am a Lightning Rod,” the latter of which sounds lifted off Side Two of The Bends.
Each record also strangely misses the other’s best song, as Animal peaks near its’ end with the stunning “My Baby (Shoots Her Mouth Off),” another Radiohead-derived track but with a super hook and chorus. Animal skips the wordy “Broadripple is Burning,” leaving Epic to claim this straightforward number. In the end, I’m not sure either record is worth the hype or the hubris. It is without question that a different compromise would have benefited both band and label (and, most importantly, the consumer). Hard-headedness on the part of each party leaves us with the partially devoured carcasses of Animal and Not Animal.
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