|
|
|
Manchester Orchestra - Mean Everything To Nothing
| Pastemagazine |
| Manchester Orchestra’s moniker is particularly misleading: The band hails from Atlanta, Ga., not The Smiths’ hometown, and string arrangements are nonexistant in their five-piece American indie rock. But the name isn’t altogether ironic. The original impulse imagined a proletariat city aspiring to something beyond its means—a reasonably apt symbol for band leader Andy Hull’s thematic concerns, expressed in coming-of-age songs where serious young men with fluctuating self-esteem grapple with the outsized vagaries of girlfriends and/or God. Even when the immediate smallness of his situation comes across in mundane lyrical details, Hull’s philosophical preoccupations let you know he’s a big-picture kind of guy....full text |
|
|
| Sputnikmusic |
| It didn’t take long for Mean Everything To Nothing to really snatch my attention. Thirty seconds into opener ‘The Only One’, rosy-faced Manchester Orchestra frontman Andy Hull deliriously blurts “I am the only son of a pastor I know / Who does the things I do”. Hold up, now. What exactly is it that you do, Mr. Hull, that makes you so different from every other son of a pastor? You think you’re a rebel do you, unshackled by the laws of religion chained onto you by your tyrannical father? Well, speaking from experience (I am ‘the son of a preacher man’ myself), I can tell you that smoking pot, getting pissed and having sex before marriage is not impossible in the world of lil’ Reverends. Hell, my brother’s outside rolling a spliff right now. But it doesn’t take your dad sporting a dog collar to know that this is the stereotype of all pastor’s sons (and daughters). So I immediately hypothesized the following: Hull is either 1. naïve and ignorant, 2. isolated and boastful, or 3. so self-aware and clever he pretty much has his tongue stapled to his cheek. After finishing Mean Everything to Nothing, there is no doubt he is the latter....full text |
|
|
| Boston. |
| Manchester Orchestra is not, as its name might suggest, some Tony Wilson-produced, post-punk collaboration featuring Happy Mondays, Oasis, and the Smiths. Rather, it's an Atlanta-based indie-rock quintet that sounds like a cross between Dashboard Confessional and something that came out of Seattle's grunge scene. Their sophomore record is like a sonic form of whiplash: lullaby-like intros progress into fist-pumping choruses, pensive piano arrangements are followed by gritty guitar riffs, and frontman Andy Hull's vocals shift from folksy Conor Oberst-like warbling on power ballads ("I Can Feel a Hot One") to breathless emo-wailing on anthems like "I've Got Friends." Similar contrasts appear in the album's lyricism: After Hull sings "I am the only son of a preacher I know/ Who does the things I do" in the opening lines of the speedy title track, subject matter then runs the gamut from religious redemption ("The River") to not-so-holy mentions of drug habits ("One Hundred Dollars"). The unabashed emotion in their all-out approach will surely appeal to fans of raw yet sentimental Southern rock, Weezer and Modest Mouse followers, and angst-ridden teens. (Out tomorrow)...full text |
|
|
Go to "Manchester Orchestra " lyrics