Album Review: Wild Mountain Nation by Blitzen Trapper

With a name that conjures up images of speedy present-bringing reindeer, Portland sextet Blitzen Trapper have made an album that sounds like Santa's twinkly sleigh falling apart, dropping gifts as it goes. They summon up the shambolic madness of Pavement, roughly half their songs being clumsy and joyous affairs full of daft, ungainly basslines that yank along glam guitars, sharp shrieks and lyrics about giant's hems and sci-fi kids. When they pause for breath, they excel at a scuffed country jangle and sweet stories about sleeping by the river.

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For Portland, Oregon's Blitzen Trapper to name its third album Wild Mountain Nation makes perfect sense -- and not because of the country western textures (and one front-porch hoedown) that run through it. It's a fitting title because the band has seceded from the quirky but lackluster indie of its previous two releases. On their new album, the members of Blitzen Trapper unfurl their flag and plant it deep into new territory.

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