Reviews

What’s there to do in Alaska? Why, form a band of course! And once said band is pieced together, what a great idea to name it after a European country whose people have probably never seen an iceberg, and if they have it was while they were going down with the Titanic.  All jokes aside, Portugal. The Man consists of the artists formerly known as Anatomy of a Ghost who upon recognizing some of their more redeeming musical qualities, joined forced with Wesley Hubbard (Jet Puff Marshmallow Men) and set out to record an album that would either leave us all snow blind in the freezing tundra or scratching our chins mumbling “what the heck…”
 
The band is avant garde progressive rock with the sharp hint of something new. Guitarist John Gourley most likely possesses one of the most distinct and bewildering vocal styles known to man.  Is it high-pitched, at times bordering on feminine and shaky? Yes. It is also strikingly infectious in a way that you don’t want to get away from it? Yes, yes, yes.  Gourley delivers his chaotic mouthful of metaphors in a way not unlike the infamous Claudio Sanchez, but with a slight softness that makes it tolerable.  Hypnotic guitars and auxiliary percussion elements tie together “Wait: You Vultures.”  More listening brings more comparisons: At The Drive In, Death From Above 1979, Gatsbys American Dream, perhaps.
 
The social commentary is in full force in songs like “Elephants,” with lyrics like “Beds are empty as the throats and banks that rise free of the cries and crimes that cry are you in today?/Will there be a better place?” Combining eclectic dance rock with socially conscious broken poetry seems to work for this band. “Bad Bad Levi Brown,” raises an eyebrow or two with lines like “If I were a God I’d be the greatest of them all with a speech so soft and loud it would kill you standing up tall from the top of that hill/I’d shout out commands to down below/They are restless tangeled mess protests burned and ears bleed in rivers.” Kudos.  Not to be unnoticed is the artwork of this record; an array of color and abstract symbolism as unpredictable and diverse as the music it represents. 
 
Portugal. The Man may have an odd name, but they’re my favorite thing to come from Alaska since I was informed that Ugg boots are Australian.  What a way to start out 2006 for Fearless!