Harvester – Me Climb Mountain
Intentionally or not, this record has all the markings of a band (or a label?) looking to cash in on whatever limited buzz this whole alt-country thing has generated. The rural band name, the irrigation wheel on the cover, the band photo on the back with the four Harvesters walking through a flooded field in hip-waders, and song titles (“Splinters”, “Shasta County”, “Stem”) that sound like the lineup for some great twang-rock bill all give the impression that Harvester is as alt-country as it gets. Whatever that would be.
The truth is that Harvester is only alt.country in the most liberal sense. They are closer to jangly, roots-influenced pop bands like the early Silos, Vulgar Boatmen, Schramms and even R.E.M. than they are to Uncle Tupelo. That’s cool, and on a song or two here, they actually suggest that they could be as good as those bands. “It’s Been A Long Day”, for example, is a moody, threatening dirge of a song that builds to an effectively understated and weary chorus: “It’s been a long, it’s been a long, it’s been a long day / All I want to do is shut my eyes.”
Generally, though, the songs of frontman Sean Harrasser, while consistently catchy, are too self-conscious in their attempts to be deep and literary (“Her most remarkable traits become embodied in a pendant that perdures” is typical), though they can just as suddenly swing the other direction into silly, sing-songy choruses of “La la la’s” and “Ba da da da’s.”
The sound of the songs suffers from such split-personality tendencies as well. A couple of cuts feature what the credits term a “fiddle,” though it’s the most violin-sounding fiddle I’ve ever heard. Over and over, incongruously big and grungy guitars burst into previously sedate songs at unexpected moments, but the result is usually distracting rather than dynamic. When the poppy and relatively quiet “Splinters” inexplicably rips into rock-out mode, it makes me laugh out loud. And just as with all of that slightly deceptive alt-country imagery on the cover, I don’t think that’s exactly the effect they’re going for.