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 Caught in the Carousel - Music Reviews and More
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Valentiger
Power Lines to Electric Times
Independent
Like a scruffier Souled American or a less doleful Galaxie 500, Michigan's Valentiger play the kind of low-fi indie roots music that sounds like a hangover, a road trip and a wobbly, broken heart all at once. On the band's sophomore effort Power Lines To Electric Times, Singer Brent Shirey sings of small town streetlight fevers, ten dollar affairs and wasting away at terrible day jobs, with a poetic authority rarely seen in a band this young. "Leaving Town" is a glowing, Americana shuffle; and the devastating "Man On Fire" finds Shirey, burdened by "pounds of heavy syrup thickening my conscience" yearning for emotional ignition. Elsewhere, "Never Ready" benefits from an unassuming melodicism; "Under The Gun" sounds like Dean Wareham had he been reared in the Midwest and "The Girl That Everyone Forgot" brings to mind the punky jangle of the Meat Puppets in their SST heyday. "Just wanna sing a song," Shirey sings on the winning Dylanesque album closer "Lament"—a simple request, indeed, but these are not simple songs; they're lullabies with fractures, ballads with sprained wrists that tug tirelessly at the heart and make it impossible for you not to follow them into the night.
—Alex Green
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