Antietam's third album was the one where all the parts finally came together. After a too low-key self-titled debut and an all-over-the-map follow-up, the Louisville-to-Hoboken trio finally got the balance right here, balancing passages of lulling introspection with a newfound tightness and aggression. Losing second bassist Wolf Knapp (mainstay Tim Harris remains, along with singer/guitarist Tara Key and new drummer Charles Schultz) changes the group's sound in an important way. As a result, Key's guitar takes a much more prominent role than before; adding a more controlled use of feedback and overtones to her sound, she makes up the depth of Knapp's rubbery, rhythmic playing while adding a whole new tonal color to the group's sound. One wonders if producers Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley were taking notes, since it was only after the duo produced
Burgoo that their own band,
Yo La Tengo, started playing in earnest with the kind of guitar sustain and feedback-overlaid tension that drives songs like "Imagining Green" and "Eaten Up By Hate." Kaplan also adds some appropriately fuzz-toned organ work to the opening and closing tracks.
Burgoo is a transitional record, and it wouldn't be until the following Everywhere Outside that
Antietam would make a flat-out terrific album, but this is much closer to the mark than before. ~ Stewart Mason