RECORD REVIEW: Manchester Orchestra’s ‘A Black Mile to the Surface’
The group’s latest album straddles the line between weighty guitar-rock and buoyant pop
Over the past decade, Manchester Orchestra has built a large and loyal fan base by making deep emotional connections with people through a punchy combo of crunchy guitars, heartfelt lyrics and soaring melodies. But after frontman Andy Hull and his guitarist/co-writer, Robert McDowell, composed a film score for 2016’s Swiss Army Man using almost exclusively recorded manipulations of the human voice (and very few traditional musical instruments), they decided to steer Manchester Orchestra in a new direction.
The result is A Black Mile to the Surface (Loma Vista Recordings). Relentlessly pretty and exquisitely crafted, the 11-track collection finds the band dialing down its intensity and reaching to the sky, searching for a new way of conveying emotion. It’s the group’s most mature work yet.
As always, the core of Manchester Orchestra’s sound are Hull’s melodies, McDowell’s guitar work and the arena-ready songs the two men write together. On Black Mile, however, they’ve upgraded that sound with cleaner production, electronic accents, choral singalongs and other grown-up touches.
It also sounds like they’ve made an effort to feature Hull’s voice more prominently in the mix, which gives the album a sleek and lofty feel. This is most noticeable on “Lead, SD,” a maelstrom of bouncy bass and buzzy synths that builds to an explosive chorus. In the past, the song might’ve overcome Hull’s vocal efforts, but his performance here is a highlight of Black Mile.
Elsewhere, the lush and strummy crescendo of “The Gold“ recalls harmony-happy indie-folk heroes Band of Horses more than any emo band, while opening track “The Maze“ is a beautiful singsong ballad built across a canyon of gentle noise. The centerpiece of the album is a trio of songs “The Alien,” “The Sunshine” and “The Grocery” that crystallizes the band’s gorgeous new sound, which straddles the line between weighty guitar-rock and buoyant guitar-pop. Manchester Orchestra walks that line expertly, and Black Mile points the way to an exciting future for a band with an impressive discography already under its belt. ★★★★☆
Manchester Orchestra plays the Tabernacle on Sat., Oct. 7. With Tigers Jaw and Foxing. $32-$115. 6 p.m. 152 Luckie St. 404-659-9022. www.tabernacleatl.com.