Landlady
Upright Behavior
Release Date: Jul 15, 2014
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock
Record label: Hometapes
Music Critic Score
How the Music Critic Score works
Buy Upright Behavior from Amazon
Album Review: Upright Behavior by Landlady
Very Good, Based on 5 Critics
Based on rating 8.5/10
Adam Schatz, the chief songwriter of Landlady, is arguably one of the most versatile and exciting musicians in recent years. The New York-based multi-instrumentalist has his hands in a lot of musical pots, his primary project being Landlady, but he’s also a member of Man Man, Father Figures (an improvisational sax-rock band), Zongo Junction (an 11-piece afrobeat band), The Shoe-Ins (a nine-piece psych-soul outfit) and even plays saxophone in Those Darlins. Needless to say Mr.
Based on rating 7.4/10
Adam Schatz, the leading force behind Landlady, is short, spasmodic, and intense. Onstage, his whole body often balls up like a fist, and his eyes bug open like someone receiving shock therapy. His voice occupies some middle distance between a young Randy Newman and an older Morrissey, yowling up into fluttery melismas and then settling into a barrel-chested belt.
Based on rating 7/10
Landlady’s debut album begins with a music-box-type melody that goes from pretty and innocent to something almost sinister, presaging the tone of Adam Schatz’s voice when he starts singing. Somehow his singing is at once gothic, hard-rock-y and shy on the song, “Above My Ground”. He repeats, “I wish that you were still around…” in a curious place in between theatre and introspection.
Based on rating 7/10
Upright Behavior, the second album from Brooklyn outfit Landlady, is at times a philosophical meditation on death and aging, filtered through a lens of soulful, sometimes difficult, and frequently playful art rock. The project began back in 2011 as the solo vessel for indie scene wunderkind Adam Schatz, who is also a member of Man Man and Father Figures when he's not too busy curating the N.Y.C. Winter Jazzfest, running his Search & Restore music database, or lending his sax chops to Vampire Weekend and Sleigh Bells.
Based on rating B-
Upright Behavior, the second album from Landlady, is the sound of a band sprouting in multiple directions. Thanks to Adam Schatz’s unique vocal style, it’s easily identifiable as “classic Landlady,” because the further they reach with their music, the more it reinforces its foundation. It’s quite something really, as this sort of behavior isn’t common; yet, here’s a band with the goal of sounding like nothing else around, and using unusual anecdotes to do so.
'Upright Behavior'
is available now