White Denim - D

I had just happened to have listened to a previous White Denim album after a local radio station played "I Start To Run" a couple of times. I had no idea that they would have a new album this week. A Black Keys comparison would seem way off to you, but White Denim are garagey and singer James Petralli has an Auerbach kind of voice if Dan were on psychedelics and speed at the same time.

But let's be clear, it's not blues-rock. It's avant-garde psychedelic jazz rock. There's little riffing going on. It's spaced-out lead fills with a very jazzy bass player and odd-time signatures. But it was still raw and rock-y to me.

"D" is more levelled than that. The vocals are more controlled. The songs are less rock-club sounding than they are studio-crafting. "At The Farm" sounds downright Phishy. "Street Joy" sounds like My Morning Jacket are covering Pink Floyd. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to paint a derivative picture. But it's clear the band is maturing... which is leaving me a little on the side of disappointed. Even though, the album is still clearly good. Progressive even. What keeps them from touring with Dream Theater is just amplification at some point.

Okay, wait- is that jazz flute? Okay, White Denim have completely jumped out of the jammy rock band pool and into full on hippies. "D" has none of the fluid post-punkiness of "Fits". This is for a different audience that doesn't fuck as much. It's a drag to say for something so theorhetically sound, but it's simply less fun. (2 of 5 stars)