The Reindeer Section has me anxious. Not scared, ya hear, but anxious. I am nervous about the dilapidated state of popular music, predominantly inspired by love and romance. Creativity is dying and sentimental rubbish is settling in, all inspired by the big L. Thankfully, we can turn off MTV, get onto the Internet, and find a gold mine: there's an alternative to the triteness. And in a world where Wilco, of all bands, is dropped from a major label, independent music has become a surrogate mother. There is musical innovation and sincerity out there.
But where does the Reindeer Section fit into all of this? Well, they've been deemed an indie supergroup, and their roster would appear to justify such a label with members from Mogwai, Belle and Sebastian, Arab Strap, Astrid, Snow Patrol, V-Twin, Mull Historical Society, Eva, and Hercules. The story goes that all of them were at a Lou Barlow gig in Glasgow when Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody suggested the idea: "Everyone thought that it was a great idea but I'm sure they were thinking, 'Aye, right, Gary, whatever,' and that I'd forget about it when I sobered up. In fact, the next day I wrote the complete album." Should we expect some mind-blowing material from this supergroup?
Not quite. Whereas the output of the typical supergroup collapses from the weight of creative tension, the presence of most of the Reindeer Section's members barely exceeds the level of a standard collaboration. Y'all Get Scared Now, Ya Hear! debunks the supergroup designation with the first track, confirming that this is, for all intents and purposes, the project of Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody. "Will You Please Be There for Me" is a simple two-minute solo acoustic number vaguely resembling a simplified version of Badly Drawn Boy's "Epitaph" with all of the filtered flutter and bird noises replaced by straightforward white noise in the left channel. The first words we hear are, "If I gave you my heart/ Would you give yours to me?," and the lyrical banality and romantic lamentations are sustained for the rest of the record against a backdrop that closely resembles Snow Patrol's acoustic moments. Lightbody writes in the liner notes that this entire record was written in one day and recorded in ten, and the lack of engagement shows.
But it's not all tedium. The next track, "The Opening Taste," features gorgeous vocal harmony between Lightbody and Astrid's Charlie Clark. "12 Hours It Takes Sometimes" wouldn't have sounded out of place on the Court and Spark's Ventura Whites debut with a lulling tempo, a slight lilt, and a distant piano. "Tout le Monde" stands out in its oddity; it's based on a driving guitar riff played by Mogwai's John Cummings that's looped alongside shifting harmonies (some repeating "anywhere in the world") while others just moan. Processed drum loops enter, along with timbaleze played by Belle and Sebastian's Richard Colburn. It turns out to be a bizarre, yet homogenous, dance number that's satisfying but undeniably out of place.
Truthfully, I bought this record because the juxtaposition of Mogwai, Belle and Sebastian, and Arab Strap made an intriguing concept, but it never comes together. Mogwai's Cummings is the only member of any of these bands with a substantial presence here, playing guitar on 8 of the 14 tracks. And even then, his performances are muted by the ubiquity of Lightbody. Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat shows up once on "Nytol," a song he lyrically co-write, but ultimately, the track comes off as a lightweight and lighthearted Arab Strap clone. Moffat's intonation, "I think it must be the soap that you use," proves to be the lyrical apex of the record. Belle and Sebastian members Colburn and Mick Cooke appear on only four tracks total (but never simultaneously) playing percussion and brass, respectively.
Which leads to the glimpse of light on Y'all Get Scared Now. "Sting," easily the album's best track, features Cooke playing Spanish-inflected muted lines on trumpet and flugelhorn, Cummings on guitar, and layers of harmonies in a coda that proves to be simultaneously compelling and hopeful for the future of this group. You see, Gary Lightbody's already written another record for the Reindeer Section, including one track exclusively for Aidan Moffat. To which Moffat responded, "Apparently, Gary's written a track for me already, so he's roped me in for that. It's that northern Irish accent, it gets me every time." Maybe you should get back to sadness, Aidan.
