By
Ian Caruth
Grade: A-
One of the funnest things about being a serious music fan is watching artists influence each other - or more plainly, noticing when one artist rips off another. Every once in a while, though, a band will throw out a curve ball - a sound or style so unexpected and out-of-left-field, it seems to have no clear antecedent.
Soul-Junk's first few albums were pretty clearly Pavement derivatives - full of sloppily played guitars, an emphasis on melody over rhythmic precision and shambling arrangements. However, their latest - and best - release, 1956, finds the band largely breaking with that type of sound in favor of a loopy, psychedelic hip-hop style - one that sounds truly original at that.
On the album's first real song, "Ill-M-I," a sampled string quartet and some spacey, synthesized bleeps form the backing for MC and bandleader Glen Galloway's witty, uplifting rap. Good-natured, funny and catchy as hell, the song sounds like a perfect radio single - if radio had anything to do with creativity anymore.
The rest of the album follows suit, with the futuristic backing tracks mixing up hip-hop, indie rock, drum-and-bass and even a little punk, and topping it all off with rich, clever wordplay in the lyrics. The closest touchstone would be Beck (who is thanked in the liner notes), but Soul-Junk has definitely staked out its own sonic territory.
And, boy, do they love Jesus Christ. Every song is overtly Christian - like earlier albums, many lyrics are lifted straight from the Bible. However, unlike most Christian releases, the spiritual references are not off-putting or cheesy. In fact, the band's openness about their beliefs is a welcome respite from most jaded, irony-laden indie rock. Altogether, the music is pretty inspired stuff - divinely so, you might say.
