The Van Pelt

Sultans of Sentiment [reissue] (2017)

eatdogs

The Van Pelt were a great indie rock band who were often

defined by their excellent minimal simplicity of guitars and vocals. Their

style of music often blended between Indie rock and some bare minimum 90’s

style Emo in slight traces.

Sultans of Sentiment

was released back in 1997 on the Gern Blandsten label and just this year it’s

been faithfully reissued from Spanish label La Castanya for those who came a

bit late to the party. In all honestly, the band never got their due and that

is a shame, but right now it is better than ever to dive in.

Being their second album, Sultans stood out in stark contrast to their more traditional

sounding debut, Stealing from our

Favorite Thieves. This time around, the band went with a more focused

approach to the music with attention paid to the musicianship itself. In

addition, the vocals of lead singer Chris Leo (formerly of Native Nod and

brother of Ted Leo) were more restrained and sung in an almost speaking type of

style (think Sue Tompkins from the similar sounding band Life Without Buildings

or even Craig Finn of Hold Steady fame).

Each of the ten songs here represent quiet refrain from

public outbursts of emotional drama. What speaks out instead is the music and

the feeling that comes from each note plucked and strummed. “Nanzen Kills a Cat”

is a great example of patience is a virtue because if you cannot grasp the

sudden Lo-Fi rawness then the almost spoken wordings of Leo, then this probably

will not be an easy journey. Still, you need to keep going for as long as you

can with this one, it’s quite good.

When the songs seem to drag a bit too long there is

sometimes a sudden change to the tone and with that a shift into more upbeat demeanor.

“The Good, the Bad & the Blind” does this changeup near the end and as you

will notice, a lot of the songs on this album tend to do this sorta thing which

bring much needed dynamic feels. “Yamato (Where People Really Die)” has a style

reminiscent of Pavement or perhaps Built to Spill and then the track “My Bouts with

Pouncing” erupts at the end with shouting screams that overtake the listener and

help the band express more in-depth triggers of personal pain and whatnot. That

was refreshing honestly…

“The Young Alchemists” is perhaps the centerpiece of the

album and should be one you use to showoff just how wonderful the band was. The

guitars have a twinkly sound to them, but blend nicely with the vocals thus

creating this atmospheric wall that is warm and moody, but with the most to

digest.

“We Are the Heathens” is the catchiest song on the album and

probably the other track you could mention for others to check out. The guitars

are the hook and the rest of the band swell with huge amounts of talent that is

not overstated. Brian Maryansky, who later joined Jets to Brazil is excellent

here on guitar as is drummer Neil O'Brien and bassist Sean Greene.

Of the final two tracks, the song “Let's Make a List” has

some of my favorite lyrics on the album.

“To give credence to your

semi-constructive argument / Tomorrow we'll wonder where this generation Gets

their priorities from / Tomorrow my heart will skip a beat / As it does every morning

nine months of the year / It has to do with this list”

As well, the closing track “Do the Lovers Still Meet at the

Chiang Kai - Shek Memorial” is also potent with insightful meaning and a line

like “Tonight it's coming out / It took

one beer to throw these scars out” has an honesty that I couldn’t write

myself.

I gotta end this review and there’s a feeling of what do you

do now once you listen to an album such as this from so long ago? You kind of

get left behind it feels like because you want more, but there really isn’t

much to go for afterwards. The band did release an album of older material and

reunited to play a few reunion shows, but for the most part, they are ghosts.

Too many bands are ghosts that only just touched the ground with their toes. I

guess you had to have been there…

Not much else to say about this. At the time of this writing,

you can still pick up the reissues on the Van Pelt Bandcamp page. Supporting

the artists is a good thing to do and it at least lets them know that they were

appreciated.

Dig it.