Upright Man— Semi-Prog For the Masses

This is only my second time listening to Upright Man’s self-titled album and I am going to blitz through this because if I listen more I will bog myself down in a quicksand of words and we all know that a picture (or a song) is worth a thousand words. First time through, it took a bit to accustom myself to the direction of the music but by the time I finished, I got it. I got it so well that parts of the album, self-titled, had already ingrained themselves in the brain. Just moments, because this album is packed full of them. Indeed, in places I found myself wondering if there was rhyme or reason, the time changes and chord progressions changing faster than I could keep up. But that’s the magic of this band. On certain songs, they lay down four or five movements and tie them all up at the end and I am captivated by it. By the fact that they are so good they can lay out four bar riffs in such a fashion and bring it all together, making it seem not only whole but magnificently so.

I guess you would call what they do semi-prog, but that not only might scare people away who would love the music but might be oversimplification. I mean, these guys have backgrounds. Classical backgrounds. And they have studied music. These are not off-the-cuff tunes here. Folks. These are well thought out songs and even movements, at times.

Case in point, a beautifully paced track titled “Say What You Mean” starts off a beautiful acoustic number, the verses flowing over a powerful chorus and turning into a crunching but smooth bridge and then returns to the chorus seamlessly. You have to hear it to understand, so…

That ain’t “Louie Louie,” sports fans. And they hit on every track of the album. I mean, I love stuff like this. It carries me away. I know this hasn’t been out all that long (the music was posted in August), but I wonder what the holdup is. Some bands who have put out much less have been overnight successes. Why not these guys?

Do you hear it? Or do you even want to hear it? I sigh. Music like this gets buried all the time and I have to carry a shovel around digging it up again. So if that’s what it takes, that is what I will do. Because in my world, you don’t bury the good. It doesn’t come around all that often, you know. Not music this fresh.

In the running for my pick for Album of the Year and leading contender for Sleeper of the Year, for sure.