Labels: Second Nature
Review by: Martin Brown
I come into the possession of new albums from The Casket Lottery and Waxwing, two of my favourites. To say their new audio offerings were eagerly awaited is something of an understatement. However I will not say great new records are like buses, because firstly that is a terrible metaphor and secondly, they aren’t like buses. They’re like great records. Actually, I’ll reconsider, as buses break down often, and the news that The Casket Lottery have split up is such a pisser that I’ll have to bite the analogical bullet. The Casket Lottery = a bus. Yes.
By contrast to Waxwing’s descent into a feast of gutsy rock, The Casket Lottery’s new album is a mellower affair than anything they’ve released before. Their trademark forays into 6:8 time sequencing, moments of inspired rock bliss, etc. are all still there. Junior’s drums are still an intricate wall of rumbling precision, Stacy’s basslines are still the perfect balance of complementary rhythm and out and out funk, and Nathan’s subtle vocals and wizardly guitar are still as up to scratch as they’ve always been. This album is consistently awesome, as indeed you’d expect a Casket Lottery album to be, but it’s only on a couple of places they really produce the effect I was after as a ‘listener’ – that feeling where your chest is going to blow up and the back of your neck feels all tingly. However, that any band can produce such an effect is the highest accolade I can bestow on them, so don’t think I’m in any way slating this record. The first song, ‘Code Red’ is easily the best, and the reprise at the end for instance is just music at its best.
In conclusion, if you dug The Casket Lottery’s previous album, ‘Moving Mountains’ (which came out far too long ago for my liking!) in terms of its mellowing out from the ‘Choose Bronze’ and ‘Dot Dash Something Or Other Dot’ records, then you’ll love ‘Survival Is For Cowards’. I prefer the earlier stuff overall, but when The Casket Lottery get it right on this record, my fucking god do they get it right; and this record is worth getting for the moments when they blow everything else they’ve done out of the water for a few unbelievable seconds.