Chris Walla: Field Manual
Barsuk
2008
Rating:


Chris Walla has unassumingly become one of the most influential indie music producers of the 2000s. His ability to turn alt-pop into songs of verdant melodiousness with Death Cab for Cutie (of which he's a fulltime member), The Decemberists, The Thermals, Tegan and Sara and Nada Surf, among others, can be heard in almost every indie band that broke through with "The O.C.," "Grey's Anatomy" and "Gossip Girl."

"Field Manual" brings the producer's tuneful luster to bear on his own songs. Walla's solo debut is predictably plush and unexpectedly political; Walla devotes most of the album to attacking hypocritical senators ("Archer V. Light"), Iraq ("The Score"), the mistreatment of Katrina victims ("Everybody Needs a Home") and, in a more conservative turn, the morning-after pill ("Sing Again"). Homeland Security apparently considered "Field Manual" such a threat it confiscated Walla's master hard drive in October 2007. It would be difficult to know these tracks were meant to be rabble-rousers, though, since the entire album is mid-tempo and pleasant, lacking the muscularity such songs require when hitting such hot-button subject matter. Walla is sincere but too soft-spoken to be an agitator.

Posted Saturday, February 9, 2008

Link to this review:
http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/music/chris.walla/field.manual