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Keelhaul - Keelhaul's Triumphant Return to Obscurity
Hydra Head Records
Release date: August 2009
The title of Keelhaul's long-overdue follow-up to 2003's Subject to Change Without Notice is, all things considered, an honest one. Keelhaul's Triumphant Return to Obscurity is indeed everything you'd expect from the Ohio band, but at the end of the day, the people heralding this comeback are the same ones who cheered the band on in the first part of this decade. And we never were that big a group to begin with.
But we're an appreciative one, and the Keelhaul has managed to pick up where Subject left off – has it really been six years? - cannot be understated. I can't begin to tell you how many bands I've tagged as being “Keelhaul-esque,” but after spending quality time with Keelhaul's Triumphant Return..., I feel a little guilty for being so liberal with that adjective. What this album shows is that at the end of the day, there's only one Keelhaul and nobody – and I mean nobody – does it better. Album highlights “Pass the Lampshade,” “Everything's a Napkin,” “El Matador,” and “Bandolero de Perros de Maiz” careen along at manic speeds, with exquisite precision and a schizophrenic's timing. The band's so adept at hitting you from the left of left field and then sucking punching you from the right that seemingly conventional sounding numbers like “THC for One” and “Waiting for the Moon to Speak” still come off as jarring (beautifully so).
That said, this isn't Thee Greatest Keelhaul Record ever. Ultimately Keelhaul's Triumphant Return to Obscurity is missing a track with the epic punch of “Driver's Bread” or the compositional genius of “Answer the Chicken” (both appear on Subject to Change Without Notice, my personal favorite). But as far as comebacks go, this is indeed triumphant. Recommended.
- John Pegoraro
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I'm never gonna work another day in my life
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