Review: Neighbors at Baby’s All Right (2/26)
Neighbors’ latest album, Failure, is out March 25. In advance of its release, the band stopped by Baby’s All Right on February 26 to provide a preview. I’ve followed Neighbors somewhat peripherally over the last few years, and if their live showcase of sorts is any indication, they may be ready to embrace (ironically, with an album called Failure) a more diverse and fully realized sound that it felt like they were circling on their early EPs and first full length, Good Luck, Kid.
Neighbors never had any trouble embracing the typical accolades bestowed on a synth-pop band; their sound remains as lush, enveloping and lustrous as ever, but with Failure, one gets the impression that they’ve invested in driving their songs forward with more prominent and defined rhythmic elements where they once may have meandered somewhat in layered melodic waves. It’s a natural progression, but rewarding nonetheless. It takes a special level of confidence to open a set with a song that features timbales, and Neighbors are comfortable enough in their own skin to pull it off.
What ultimately allows Neighbors to grow within their genre is the band’s obvious dedication to songwriting. Their sound (if we’re making generalizations for the sake of argument) is one that must carefully walk the line between pretense and fluff, and to do so requires investment as much as it does a willingness to let go and have fun. A band like Neighbors is undoubtedly going to draw comparisons to influential predecessors because their sound is an inherent composite or collage of those influences. What sets them apart in this is their careful amalgamation of those influences, and their ability to use influence to serve a unique and personal message. With the aforementioned rack drums and a neon-orange guitar that looks like it would belong to Don Henley if he lived in space, Noah Stitleman & Co. might have their tongues in their respective cheeks to some extent, but their songs are closer to earnestness than they are an inside joke. This is a very good thing.
Tunes “Long Time Down” and “Gun Shy” were highlights (at least according to the four-beer-deep notes I absentmindedly tapped out on my phone), and although almost all of the songs were new to the audience, they were delivered with a polished confidence that at once made them familiar.
Toward the end of the set, Stitleman apologized for his vocals, garnering some giddy ribbing from the rest of band. In an effective summation, Neighbors followed the banter with a final waltz (the only song written pre-Failure that they played, I believe) that featured especially strong vocal harmonies and a timbre that felt studied and trusted. O, the irony.
Too often, we try to academicize rock bands, place them into categories and critique them for their place in a larger sub-genre. And although I may have just done this in some ways, I think that the root of Neighbors’ success as a band is simple, embraceable and apolitical. They’re working hard and they’re having fun. Failure might represent the band’s most significant achievement to date, but to call it their high point would be to underestimate their potential.
Review by Andrew McDonald. Follow him on Twitter @aellismncdonald.