War Prayers

Album Review

An album full of tension and beauty, War Prayers expands on the prairie ruminations of Young People's stunning debut album in fascinating, and often contradictory, ways. "El Paso" begins the album on a warmer, brighter note than anything they achieved on their somber first album, but then songs such as "Dutch Oven" present Young People at their most abstractly brooding, with angry guitars swarming over Katie Eastburn's keening voice. Eastburn remains one of indie rock's most expressive vocalists: when she sings about the "flappin' of the feathers" on "Lord," she sounds like she's in a bird costume; on "Early Poetry" she's rapt, with little flaws and gasps giving the clarity of her voice more dimension and humanity. While War Prayers lacks the single-minded, god-fearing purpose of Young People, the album does provide more moods for Eastburn and the rest of the band to explore, from the sweetly anarchic "Ne'er Do Well" to the dark sensuality of "Stagecoach." Several songs do indeed sound like rituals in preparation for some kind of battle: on "Tammy Faye" the band chants "We are all going" backed by ominous drums; on "Rhumba," these drums sound like a cross between a reveille and a showy big-band rhythm as Eastburn sings, "If I should die/Box me up/Ship me home." The band also finds new ways to express its fluid, stream-of-consciousness approach on "Ask About the Dust," which moves from hushed vocals and brushed drums to an ecstatic burst of noise to a galloping finish so seamlessly that it's hard to believe that the song only lasts a little over two minutes. "Night of the Hunter," meanwhile, is a radical version of the spooky song from the classic film about the fly whose children flew into the moon. Beginning with a folky, almost childlike simplicity before turning punkabilly, it's one of the more unusual and ambitious songs from a band that is by its nature unusual and ambitious. Throughout the album, Young People display the fierce naïveté that makes their music bracing, and occasionally, inaccessible. However, their songs have a momentum that's thrilling, if you're willing to go along with it. Young People's singularity might make it a slightly better album, but War Prayers' adventurous spirit makes it an exciting, and often rewarding, follow-up.