Margot and the Nuclear So and So's were right to fight their record label for the right to release its new album, Animal, the way it was intended. I doubted that before Tuesday night, but hearing the songs performed live, in the order on which they appear on the album, I was struck by how solid, how good that batch of songs is. They work well together, and, in contrast to so many other albums, they get better and they progress.

If you're not a fan of the band -- and if that's the case, then you have some work to do -- then you've probably only heard about it in relation to the record label controversy. The band signed to Epic after it's debut, The Dust of Retreat, deservedly won several accolades. The band delivered Animal, and the label balked. It liked some of the songs, but not all, and proposed it's own track listing. There was overlap of five tracks, but seven of the tracks on the label's version are what band leader Richard Edwards has referred to as "B sides." Some of the tracks on the label's version are good, but in this case, I trust the vision of the artist.

“It was a bummer. Nobody likes there not being enthusiasm for their record. But I’m OK with the compromise. There are good and bad things about it,” Edwards told me in an interview for CorridorBuzz.com. The compromise? The label released the band's version on vinyl as Animal and it's own as a CD, Not Animal. Strange, especially given the fact that true fans are the only ones likely to buy both and therefore are the ones who don't need two versions of five songs.

Edwards said the whole situation worked out well for the most part. The band recorded with producer Brian Deck, who he said it would have been difficult to land otherwise.

"I don't think we went into it thinking, "Why is this happening to us? I think we kinda got away with some shit. I'd rather our album come out on double vinyl anyway."

As for the songs the band didn't want on Animal, Edwards said they don't sound "crazy different. I think some of them are good songs, I just think Animal works. There is stuff on there that I think has a little more substance musically."

About those last two points, he is absolutely right. The band played the entire album at its concert at Old Brick in Iowa City on Tuesday, and it was a transcendent performance. The group, which swelled from its usual eight members to 10 for the show, wedged itself onto the small stage and ran through the album. Edwards noted that the album was released that day, and later apologized for playing "a bunch of songs that nobody knows," rationalizing that "we have to get good at playing them."

He needn't have apologized. The band, while a bit ragged in spots, filled the room with wonderful sound. Nothing seemed extraneous. With three string players, two guitars, bass, keyboards, brass, drums and percussion, everything seemed organic to the songs. There were as many as four people singing at any one time, adding rich harmonies to Edward's delicate, soaring melodies.

It was a chore coaxing much of an interview out of Edwards on the phone, like badgering a tired teenager for details about his late night just after waking him much too early the next morning. But in concert, where it matters, he was intense. He moved little, but poured his energy into his vocals.

Live, Animal is considerably more powerful than on record. Having listened to the album a handful of times before the show, I liked the songs but found I had trouble grasping the disc as a whole. The songs were strong in performance, the hooks magnified, the dynamics more, well, dynamic. Listening to those same songs on the drive home, they sounded somewhat tinny in comparison. That's typical, but it made me wish greater pains had been taken to fully capture the sonic presence of this large ensemble on record. That said, it's still a very, very good album from a very good band with considerable promise.

Labels: music