PORTUGAL. THE MAN “Church Mouth”
Just when you thought Fearless Records couldn’t get any more soulless after releasing albums from the likes of MAYDAY PARADE and ALESANA, they’re saved by the gentlemen in PORTUGAL. THE MAN and their incredibly soulful sophomore disc, Church Mouth. A departure from the wavering, effects-heavy Waiter: “You Vultures!”, Church Mouth finds the trio dabbling – scratch that, fully immersed – in terrifically funky, rhythm-first psychedelic rock. The album’s title track, perhaps the perfect lead-in to the band’s latest evolution, picks up with John Gourley delicately singing “sell me, I’m a skeptical boy” over a jangly riff prior to the entrance of bandmates Zacharcy Carothers and Jason Sechrist on bass and drums, respectively. From here on out, it’s this rhythm section that separates Church Mouth from anything Gourley has been a part of in the past.
Gourley, still very much the centerpiece of PORTUGAL. THE MAN, easily produces his best performance to date. His vocals are sensitive and eccentric throughout the album’s duration, offering words and ideas still hidden in allegory (yet not quite in as bizarre a way as on Waiter). All around him, as heard in “Telling Tellers Tell Me,” Carothers and Sechrist provide unconventional rhythms with Carothers standing out with his sizable basslines in this particular track. On the other hand, Sechrist supplies the steady, rough drumming pattern to “Sugar Cinnamon,” one of the album’s more memorable tunes with the constant chanting of “sleeping in the streets” around mesmerizing effects. Not to be left out of the instrumentation mix, Gourley pulls his weight on the guitar, but it doesn’t hurt that he’s got such a formidable duo supporting him. The band’s jam session toward the end of “Bellies Are Full” brings to mind the classic ways of LED ZEPPELIN whereas “The Bottom” is a bit more modern with eerie, stoner rock riffs leading the charge.
Although the album ends with an abrupt fade-out after the minute long “Sun Brother,” its preceding tracks more than make up for the misstep. While they could have easily concluded things with the heartbeat fading in “Sleeping Sleepers Sleep,” the true gem of the latter half is “Children.” The track’s half-country western/half-psychedelic rock vibe sets a scene in my mind of two raging cowboys ready to draw guns on each other. About to begin their quarrel, a shadow sets on the scene, all is quiet, and a vibrant storm lets loose, toppling anything in its wake. Only, for the song’s sake, instead of a storm, imagine mammoth yet surprisingly rough riffs and a barrage of basslines attacking the still that laid moments before. Although “Children” is the album’s longest track at a tad over five-minutes, it’s also the most gratifying.
The aforementioned mesh of hugeness and roughness is no doubt due to Casey Bates’ production job. His raw and natural style is etched into Church Mouth, and it’s a style that’s wholly welcomed given PORTUGAL. THE MAN’s sound. Aside from this, one of the album’s best and probably most overlooked traits is its running time. It’s not often that bands foraying into the progressive realm of rock can sum up their ideas in a mere three to four minutes, yet on Church Mouth, PORTUGAL. THE MAN does just that. Once an elecronica mouthpiece for Gourley, PORTUGAL. THE MAN has blossomed into a three-headed musical beast, taking only the best ingredients of the past in their combined effort to conjure up a sound the present has longed for.
Fearless
