#3326 Herzog - Me Vs. You

4.5/5

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For one bar you think this is a new stripped-down Herzog, a Separation Sunday declaration of nostalgic stakes barrelling you over. For one song this sounds like Boys 2, propulsive music aware of the importance of music. But then the band shimmers off into Winter, and never quite comes back, drifting through something gauzier, more lost and more hopeful. And off we go, a followup one of the best, cleanest fistpumpingest albums in years is more of a headphone album, one that rocks plenty, but that shares more with Radiohead and the War on Drugs than you might expect.

It's the song structures short tracks unspooling like mini-epics, with subtle swerves and proggy diversions, shifting the formula just enough to keep you on your toes but never whacking expectation for its own sake. The closer's something special, a wordless build to a shoutalong climax to a fadeout as long as a day in the life.

It's also the lush, sensitive production. Me vs. You has moments of pure shoegaze, overflowing with generosity. From the soft second verse of Amps II Eleven, to the crashing climax of No Place is Safe Forever, the record's packed with harmonics, echoes, fizzy frictions and synthy flourishes. Other songs have a nuanced closeness: fingers on bass frets, the frames of the drums. It's all very pretty, all bringing intimacy to a pretty personal album.

One of Herzog's strengths has always been the honesty and directness of their songwriting. Boys addressed the indie rockers on line one, and followed up with songs about rock, touring, and the biz. Making music about making music's as demonstrably earnest as musicmaking can be, but the theme was made univeral, just songs about having a job, grinding frustration, sluffing profits to the man - its just that Herzog's job is being in a band. And then there's songs about getting old in a young folks' scene, an easy subject that's hard to handle well, but they find an effortless combination of personal and relatable that gives every song a punch.

And they keep it going here, still getting older, still settling down, still angry from time to time, trying to keep it all in balance. I've got a kid of my own, we're reminded. No once cares if you're depressed. Living Wrong, which undercuts everything about this being their more understaded album, is fire.

The one problem is the weird sequencing. The flow never quite comes together, maybe owing to some recording stumbles there were rumbles of. On an album as well-suited for a 3-peak structure, why not put Winter 3rd and either let it be a break from a big one-two or at least give yourself a chance to come down off the opener? Freedom's Goblin did the same thing. It's frustrating; it feels like a good film undercut by bad editing.

That aside.

Me vs. You's a great record for anyone who came up on loud-quiet bands in the 90's, who's grappling with the realities of unyoungness, full of big riffs and little shimmers. These guys are up there with Je Suis France as a chronically underappreciated band. This is the kind of album that makes you actively put energy into hoping a band stays together, just so you can get music more like this in your life.