WHEN THE WIND BLOWS

Creedle's third (and at this point, final) album remains their most cohesive, musical, and accessible recording. Arising from punky origins, the band made a major step into winding, complex progressive epic territory on their 2nd album (Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars), and on this album they let go of some of the wild strangeness of that album, in favor of a more direct, sharply focused attack. The most noticeable change is the addition of Cochemea Gastelum on alto saxophone, who takes the lead (often in unison with Devon Goldberg's guitar) on many of the tunes. He, as well as the rest of the band, have by now improved their playing chops to razor-sharp precision, playing incredibly fast and complex melodic and rhythmic teams as a super-tight jazz-rock ensemble. There's a lot more than just jazz-rock here, though, as you will soon see.

The three-part title track (7 minutes) opens the album with a drifting psychedelic guitar waltz, abruptly stopping 2 minutes in and changing to a fast swing shuffle with unison sax/guitar. For the last half of the song, the tempo and volume jump to a higher level, revisiting the chord sequence of the intro but in more powerful rock fashion. The next two tracks, "Rabbi Steinman's Happy Hour Frito Boats" and "Stardust Hotel and Casino", are delightfully playful and energetic jazzy 5-minute instrumentals - the first built on a Hebrew-sounding melody with myriad variations, the second sounding a bit like a spy movie theme. A brief instrumental snippet called "The Gircle" follows, a funk-jazzy vamp probably edited out of a jam, sounding a bit like those funky instrumentals on the Beastie Boys' "Check Your Head". The album contains a few more instrumental jazzy numbers, in a variety of styles. "Los Calapalos, Los Capalapalos" adds a Latin flavor, "La Chanson de l'Espion Detectif" is total spy music, and "Bossa Me (You're Not The)" brings in a bossa nova beat. Not all of these are indispensable, and one could argue that they are a bit too similar to all share an album, but by themselves they're each great in their own way. Fans of John Zorn's Naked City should take note here.

"Fisher Price" offers us a clear album highlight - the vocals are back now, twisting a series of wordy tongue twisting verses over an acoustic Hebrew-Tango rhythm, with electric guitar and sax taking the instrumental lead melodies. If I had to release a single from this album, this would be my clear choice. Fun and accessible, while also exciting and complex (check out those speedy unison runs!).

Several songs on this album keep the music simple - kind of serving the function of keeping the album and band down to earth. "Wisdom Tooth", for example, is a simple, demo-level three chord lo fi indie rock song, and the brief "Kansas" acoustic goof a few songs later also lightens the mood. Later, "Film Co-Work Co" offers a more fleshed out indie rock song, starting simple but adding layers as it goes. And finally, "Golden Gate" offers a similar stripped-down approach.

Lastly, there are the two really long pieces, one sitting threateningly in the middle of the album (called "Middletown", appropriately enough), and one closing the album, the terrifying "Pretty Ugly, Act 1". "Middletown" (10 minutes) gives us a very different style from anything else on the album - it appears to be their take on the type of math rock song first introduced on Slint's deadly "Spiderland" album from 1991 (it reminds me a lot of "Washer" from that album). Quiet verses with suspenseful lyrics give way to roaringly loud choruses for the first half, and the whole band kicks in for a Kashmir-like riff in the second half.

The final track, "Pretty Ugly, Act 1" ("Act Two" perversely appeared earlier on the album, lasting under 30 seconds long) offers the album's most complex rhythms, most aggressive band attack, and just basically shows you every trick the band has ever had, all wrapped up in one monstrous 8 minute song. The way the song almost dies halfway through, only to gradually seep back through your speakers before coming to a roaring climax, is a wonder to behold. Probably the best possible way they could have ended this album, not to mention their career.

This is the album to start with for prog fans. Although it's their most seamless album, it still has enough flaws to make me hesitate giving it five stars. But suffice to say that there are enough "wow" moments on this album to please just about anybody interested in daring, aggressive, and eclectic rock music.