As the recent yacht-rock revival has illustrated, the west coast has traditionally been associated with a certain sunshined contentment and peaceful easy feeling. However, the most prominent indie rock artists to have sprung from the region in the past decade have been defined by a notable lack of fun, fun, fun, from the macro, modern-world meditations of Grandaddy to the fraught, tender intimacies of Death Cab for Cutie. Situated between these two totems-- both geographically and spiritually-- are L.A.'s Division Day, who are seemingly so in tune with west-coast despondency that they named themselves after an Elliott Smith song.
But Division Day are rarely shy about their diffidence-- their debut full-length, Beartrap Island, communicates its overarching sense of melancholy with assertive, sometimes aggressive gestures. The album has been gestating since 2005, and though one can't assume the tracklist reflects the songwriting's chronology, Beartrap Island plays like a spirited juxtaposition of ideas before tempering itself into a more refined, if less captivating, presentation. In its opening stretch, the album touches on wondrous, synth-swathed psychedelic reveries (the 80-second title track), scrappy, staccato rock rave-ups ("Ricky") and, in their most successful turn, a reconciliation of the two on "Catch Your Death", which locks into a swirling, stuttering drum beat (suggesting a nascent dub influence) before double-timing into an effectively urgent chorus.
But with the onset of "Hurricane", Division Day's agenda comes into sharper focus: plaintive, pulse-regulating adult-contemporary indie rock that's often afflicted with a bout of mid-tempo-itis. Perhaps sensing that his bald sentiments (to wit: "I want your blood inside my head") could set off the emo alarm, singer Rohner Segnitz maintains a poised, breathy delivery that keeps the melodrama and histrionics to a minimum, but at the same time seems overly subservient to the songs' lazy haze; by the time we hit the second-act power ballad "Reversible", the portentous synth tones and Edge-y guitars render Division Day indistinguishable from any number of contemporary modern-rock bands striving for 1980s Big Music import.
So it's no small consolation that Beartrap Island's most serious song topic is given an affectingly spare presentation that allows Segnitz's voice to stand on its own humble terms, without attempting to obscure or bolster it. The song is called "Dayenu", a reference to a Passover hymn commemorating the Exodus tale, wherein the title (which translates to "it would suffice us") is traditionally sung with joyous gusto. But in Division Day's case, the song's theme-- essentially, one of just being lucky to be alive-- is appropriated for a downcast rumination on surviving a near-fatal fever, illuminated by trolling organ accompaniment and sparks of feedback. Perhaps it's not the most appropriate selection for the Seder table this weekend, but in their own modest way, Division Day turn their own sorrow into something worth celebrating.
