If the Life and Times chose to release their newest album through the Arena Rock Recording Co. simply because of the label's name, that wouldn't be much of a surprise. Despite their budgetary restrains, the Life and Times have done their best to imbue their music with a sound and swagger enormous enough to theoretically fill any venue imaginable. It's been nearly four years since their debut, and that time's been well spent turning their awkwardly titled second album into a sonic monolith. While the group's previous works can't be accused of modesty or restraint, Tragic Boogie downright revels in its excess.
As with their first full length, Suburban Hymns, the Life and Times combine shoegazey guitars and textures with apocalyptic slabs of percussion and rhythm-- every time a drum is hit or a bass string is strummed, it's as if tectonic plates are being shifted. If you want to give the group some poetic leeway, they might be accused of describing their sound on "Fall of the Angry Clowns"-- "it's not unlike falling upwards." Sadly, folks looking for words that match the heft of their sounds might be disappointed by the abstractions and imagistic meanderings the group employs. But on a record like this, words are a secondary concern-- whatever meanings these songs are meant to convey is done strictly through the music, and Tragic Boogie is at its best when it remembers this.
The second half peters out in this regard-- after offering an endless barrage of pyrotechnics, the title track and "The Politics of Driving" take a more genial and measured approach. Paired with "The Lucid Dream", a tune that bears an astonishing (and welcome) resemblance to Doves or a down-tempo Swervedriver, these three second-half tracks trip up the record's momentum-- the 100-car-pile-up outro of "Politics" tries to regain the album's hell-bent momentum, but to no avail. As nice as a respite from all this grandeur might seem, the band does itself no favors by playing against its strengths. The late-record detours can't hold a candle to the shameless bombast on display in "Angry Clowns", or the grand piano chords that strafe the entirety of "Dull Knives". From the first effected chord struck in the album's opener, "Que Sera Sera", to the moment in "Confetti" where the cacophony suddenly gives way to acoustic strumming, the Life and Times offer listeners a thrilling cinematic journey through their meticulously constructed world of sound. In fact, it's probably best to approach Tragic Boogie the way you'd approach a summer movie blockbuster-- there might not be much happening on the screen in terms of substantive depth, but it looks and sounds great, and the special effects are out of this world.
