Forming as a high school band in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2004, they made their full-length debut with Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair four years later. Whilst the band would subsequently move on to greater things, the album had a fairly unreconstructed 00s emo sound, and it remains a relative weak spot in their discography. Second album Wildlife (2011) made greater use of jagged guitar lines that sounded reminiscent of 90s post-hardcore greats like Fugazi and Unwound, and lead vocalist Jordan Dreyer’s lyrics had a far more mature approach to storytelling than that he deployed on Somewhere’s lyrics. La Dispute followed this up with the excellent Rooms of the House (2014), a concept album about the break-up of a relationship as told from the point of view of objects in the central couple’s house. Panorama (2019) was a venture into more personal territory that was informed by Dreyer’s emotional responses to the physical surroundings he and his partner would encounter on car journeys through West Michigan. It was also dominated by the spoken-word vocals that were a more minor aspect of the band’s previous albums. La Dispute have said their fifth album, No One Was Driving the Car, draws inspiration from fellow Grand Rapids native Paul Schrader’s darkly compelling eco-thriller First Reformed (2017), as well as the fatal crash of a self-driving Tesla that Dreyer read about.
The album opens with the mid-tempo “I Shaved My Head”, which is dominated by Adam Vass’ fuzzy bass and Dreyer’s angsty, half-yelled vocals. The pace kicks up several notches on “Man with Hands and Ankles Bound”, which sees Corey Stroffolino and Chad Morgan-Sterenberg’s speedy riffing make a welcome return to the fold. “Autofiction Detail”, “Environmental Catastrophe Film”, and the acoustic “Self-Portrait Backwards” feature understated, contemplative, mournful vocals from Dreyer in which he sounds like he’s on the verge of tears at points, and perhaps he was. The recording of the album was clearly an emotional time for him, if the documentary accompanying No One’s release is anything to go by. “The Field” is a strong, slowish song, and it reminds me of the guitar sound on Rooms, which is a great thing because Rooms remains my favourite La Dispute album to date and was the album that got me into the band, so it will always occupy a special place in my aural memory. This evocation of the earlier album extends to Dreyer’s vocals and lyrics on “Sibling Fistfight at Mom’s Fiftieth / The Un-sound”, with the narrator’s use of the second person to convey the impact and long-lasting hurt the titular incident has clearly had on the song’s subject recalling the lyrics and pained delivery of them on songs from Rooms like “For Mayor in Splitsville” and “The Child We Lost 1963”.
The guitars on “Landlord Calls the Sheriff In” and “Steve” are satisfyingly crunchy, as they are on the eight-minute “Top-Sellers Banquet”, but Dreyer’s vocals in the first couple of verses on the latter song sound a little contrived and bordering on those of an angsty pop-punk vocalist in places. This quality might have the potential to let the song down, but thankfully, the instrumentation is strong enough to ensure it remains a satisfying listening experience. “Saturation Diver” starts off softly and acoustically, but builds up to a climactic cacophony of melodic electric guitars, bleeps of feedback, and interview samples. The softness of the guitars on “I Dreamt of a Room with All My Friends I Could Get In” is very effectively complemented by the harshness of the vocals and Brad Vander Lugt’s drums. The two acoustic closers, the title track and “End Times Sermon”, are less powerful in instrumental terms than the songs that have preceded them, but they encapsulate the album’s generally bleak, Schrader-inspired outlook effectively, “End Times Sermon” closing as it does with an interview sample in which the speaker says: “I look at my grandkids and I look at other people’s children, and I wonder what kind of tomorrow they really will have.”No One Was Driving The Car represents a strong return to the guitar-driven, fictional, but nonetheless moving terrain of La Dispute’s third (and best) album following the more personal and pastoral Panorama. Whilst the closing two songs are the weakest, they are still essential for the listener to have a full understanding of the album’s narrative. At virtually all other points, they are on top form as musicians and songwriters. It may not make for the easiest introduction to the band, but six years after their last full-length, fans are naturally going to have a thirst for new material from them. This album should meet and exceed those expectations.
