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I count In the Wake<\/em> as the latest entry in my Not What I Expected file. Tea Leaf Green<\/strong> are known in many quarters as a jam band; that in itself is generally enough to lead me to pass a CD over; I’m simply not a fan of the grinning, herbulent noodling endemic to the jam band genre; as I was told many years ago upon my dismissal from a cover band that had of late begun leaning in a jam direction, I’m a \u201csong guy.\u201d Like that’s a bad thing<\/em>.<\/p>\n As it turns out, Tea Leaf Green are song guys, too. With a sound that folds in influences from The Band<\/strong>, southern rock, Americana, and the smoother sounds of 90s artists such as Bruce Hornsby<\/strong>, Tea Leaf Green keeps the emphasis on songcraft and melody. Synthesizers and churning sonics of the sort you’d find on a Radiohead<\/strong> album sit surprisingly comfortably alongside acoustic guitars, though there’s plenty of electric guitar too.<\/p>\n While In the Wake<\/em> is a consistently engaging album, the band is at its best when concentrating on that melodicism. When they crank up the riffage \u2013 as on \u201cSpace Hero Pt. 2\u201d \u2013 the results are less distinctive, conjuring unwelcome memories of such sub-luminaties as Spin Doctors<\/strong>. (The song’s treated, mannered vocals don’t help matters.) But that track is the exception; the 70s electric piano and strings vibe of \u201cPenny Saved\u201d is hooky and highly tuneful. Its propulsive bass line and Memphis-flavored horns add up to the album’s strongest track. Its The press kit for the album makes repeated references to unspecified tragedies and losses that the band endured in the run-up to making In the Wake<\/em>, but there’s a decidedly upbeat, positive musical vibe shot through the entire record. The cellos and violins that guest players provide on the album (most notably on \u201cAll Our Love,\u201d another of the record’s strongest cuts) add a dimension of both emotion and stateliness, but never in a pretentious way. The vocals on the album \u2013 provided by three of the five players \u2013 sound at times like Tim DeLaughter<\/strong> of The Polyphonic Spree<\/strong><\/a>; there’s a shaky, warbly quality that veers right on the edge of being disquieting. But that sensitive and organic vocal quality actually works here, in a way not unlike Neil Young<\/strong>‘s work.<\/p>\n Jam band fans will still find plenty to like here; the insistent grooves are key to most of these songs, but the band exhibits admirable restraint in reining in any jam tendencies. \u201cGive Me One More Chance\u201d has a soul groove. \u201cOne Condition’s Enough\u201d answers the question: what would Paul Simon<\/strong> sound like if he knew how to rock? \u201cSpace Hero Pt.3\u201d mixes gentle acoustic guitar with swooshy, distant electronics, and the result sounds a bit like A Saucerful of Secrets<\/em>-era Pink Floyd<\/strong><\/a>, specifically Roger Waters<\/strong>‘ \u201cGrantchester Meadows.\u201d The first part of \u201cSpace Hero Pt. 4\u201d finds the Spin Doctors vibe rearing its head, but the strong melody (and guitar solo) bring it to a storming, jubilant finish. Some electronic percussion and looping (notably on the title track) again reminds of Radiohead, a band with whom one might guess Tea Leaf Green has little in common. \u201cMr. E and the Cosmic Receptacle\u201d hybridizes electronica and country blues. But these varied stylistic touchstones are all tied together nicely within In the Wake<\/em>, and the result is a nice balance between variety and cohesion.<\/p>\nsynthesizer<\/del>* (bass! sincere thanks to reader Madeline Morse for the correction) solo almost edges into prog-rock territory, but remains safely just inside the pop idiom.<\/p>\n
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