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The Morning After: Eats Darkness by Apostle of Hustle (Part of the Broken Social Scene Family)
Report Card: B-
Despite his role as their mostly anonymous lead guitarist, there remains little doubt that Andrew Whiteman is a key figure making Broken Social Scene as dynamic as they are. And there’s even less doubt that it’s an admirable move on his part to avoid the whole Broken Social Scene Presents nonsense that gave (perhaps questionable) legitimacy to releases by good-enough-to-do-it-on-his-own Kevin Drew and probably-had-no-chance-without-the-help Brendan Canning. But while flying under the Apostle of Hustle banner is a strong statement of creative independence, with that comes not only substantial reward, but also substantial risk. And with Eats Darkness, Apostle of Hustle’s third LP, which side of that coin gets more play becomes quite the relevant question.
First off, a comment on transitional “non-song” tracks is in order, as in effect there are only eight songs on this thirteen-track album, and one can’t help but feel the five filler tracks (five!), which are riddled with gunshots and 96% unnecessary sound bites, are doing a detriment to the work as a whole. They make Whiteman’s attention to social problems a little more blatant than they probably need to be, and offer unfriendly interruptions to the album’s flow. In a sense, skit-like transition tracks like this smell a bit much of the 1990s, and also, they rarely (and never on this album) hold up to the gold standard of album tracks: can you listen to it time after time without getting bored or, in this case, annoyed? On Eats Darkness, the unfortunate part is that if Whiteman had just been content with a brief eight-song album (it would have been 32 minutes long), it could’ve made for a pretty strong, tight, cohesive work. Instead, despite what may be efforts to classify those tracks as thematic necessities, they come across as an insecure attempt to fill out an album that wasn’t quite ready to be released.
***After the jump, check out a video of Apostle of Hustle performing the title track of their acclaimed 2004 release Folkloric Feel***
Now that that’s been addressed, while Eats Darkness features moments when Whiteman’s at his best, those who have loved his work since 2004’s stellar Folkloric Feel will likely view this album as a missed opportunity—whereas Folkloric Feel was a stunning and eclectic mix of Cuba and Spain, 2007’s National Anthem of Nowhere was more pop in its tendencies and therefore a little too familiar to be thoroughly captivating; because of this, fingers were crossed for a return to the revelatory. And from the moment slickly dark first single “Perfect Fit” made its existence known, it was apparent that yet another big turn was in the works for Whiteman’s musical ambitions. Yet while the album has its moments of magic—notable are catchy “Eazy Speaks” and clattering “Soul Unwind,” two songs where both Whiteman’s guitar and vocals shine—as a whole Eats Darkness never comes within a stone’s throw of the band’s debut, and instead is relegated to sitting beside Nowhere on the shelf of “eh, it’s alright.”
Listen to music by Apostle of Hustle here.
For more hot off the press album reviews, including Animal Collective, Deerhunter, TV on the Radio, M. Ward, and many more, stop by Austin's own Transmission Entertainment.
