With a name like Milton & the Devils Party and a current album entitled How Wicked We’ve Become, one would suspect the corresponding music to be synonymous with angst-driven, unintelligible death rock.
Well, put down your devil horns and crack the spine on your copy of Paradise Lost, because what we have here are biting lyrics you can sing along to, coupled with an indie rock sound rivaling most college rock bands. Band members Daniel Robinson, Mark Graybill and Mark Falgie open the album with “Coward of the Conscience,” a tale about returning to the foolish, yet blissful times when a conscience was nothing but a burden to be ignored.The upbeat guitar and bass, moderate drum beats, and singer Robinson’s light-hearted, slightly raspy voice in “Coward of the Conscience” set the stage for the remainder of the album.
Continuing with upbeat, catchy sounds, the band makes a 180-degree turn with the lyrically unsettling “I’ve Had Your Wife,” in which the self-righteous recipient of a wife’s infidelity arrogantly rubs her husband’s nose in his mistakes. The highlights of the song lie within its intense chorus and its smooth, albeit brief, taunting saxophone.
“Have To Have Everything” is musically reminiscent of The Blake Babies or The Lemonheads with its poppy, indie rock stylings. Its introspective, pleasantly upbeat lyrics and Beatles-esque message that love is all we need easily makes it the most accessible and noteworthy song on the album.
The band strikes a pious chord with “My Head Is Bowed,” in which Robinson desperately emotes with his frail, dramatic voice in the powerful chorus, “And what you don’t know/I’ve been everywhere but down/Now my head is bowed.” Guest musician Brian Christinzio’s soft, melodic piano accompaniment further compliments the overall intensity of the song.
Another memorable song is the chock-full-of-wisdom tune “Too Old To Die,” in which Robinson humorously laments, “misery is a luxury when you’re seventeen (or you’re Morrissey)/but I’ve got people depending on me.” The lesson here: wisdom is gained with age, only to be wasted on the elderly and ultimately silenced by death. Robinson’s voice pleasantly resembles Elvis Costello’s in the exquisitely sad, “Perdita,” about trying to save a woman who is ultimately headed for destruction. The emotion is further felt by the acoustic guitar. Robinson lingers on each chord, placing the listener in the tragic moment in which Perdita is slipping away.
Article comments