Album Review: You Can't Take It With You by As Tall As Lions

As Tall as Lions made a late-aughts splash on the indie music scene with a sound characterized by Coldplay-esque melodicism, U2-ish ethereal guitar textures, and the supple, soaring, Jeff Buckley-influenced lead vocals of singer Dan Nigro. On You Can't Take It with You, the Long Island-based group continued in much the same vein as on its 2006 self-titled release, matching the abovementioned sonic palette with kinetic drum'n'bass beats and heaping helpings of old-fashioned rock energy. Sounding at once accessible and inscrutably mysterious, "In Case of Rapture" bristles with a nervous energy that should please emo fans, but remains densely textured enough to appeal to listeners with an ear for the progressive.

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New York’s As Tall As Lions borrows from many familiar acts from the last decade or two: the Mars Volta, Jeff Buckley, Phantom Planet, and Black Rebel Motor Cycle Club, and you’ll probably come up with even more comparisons. So when you first hear You Can’t Take it With You, you might think you've heard it before. It's a pleasant listen, but it's hardly unique, original, or even recognizable.

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The 2007 television writer's strike was often portrayed in the national media as a pissing match between well-compensated TV scribes and studio fat cats, but if you lived in L.A. during that time, you'd see how its economic fallout fucked over the little guys-- obscenely underpaid talent assistants kicked to the curb right before the holidays, waiters who could no longer make ends meet once the business lunches stopped bringing in fat tips... bands like As Tall As Lions, whose pockets get hurt any time a show like "October Road" gets 86'd.

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