Voxtrot, Vox Humana, Voxy Lady

I’ve seen Voxtrot twice. They’re terrific live, a bunch of nice-looking young men in their mid-early twenties bouncing and gleefully delivering spurts of well-crafted, energetic indie pop, which comes off live as sort of a combination of the Smiths, Heavenly, and mid-period Beatles, as well as a host of other 80s and 90s indiepop influences. Good stuff indeed, and I was eager to hear how it translated in recordings. The mp3s I heard I their site awhile back were, I admit, kind of boring, but luckily this particular document, a self-titled EP, is much more promising-sounding, and comes close to delivering on their live promise.

Firstly, lead singer Ramesh Srivastava has a beautiful voice. Live, however, my only real complaint was that the songs were too good to be delivered by a singer who, though gifted with a technically pretty voice, lacked personality. They dealt with the potential for vocal vanilla well in the recording by lathering the vocals up nicely with double-tracking and generous slap-back delay, the latter of which is an effect I am admittedly a sucker for. It was a good idea. On top of that, his performances on the EP are a little more ragged, a little more vibrato-laden, which, even without the effects (which are absent on some passages) help a great deal in delivering him from a Ben Gibbard hell of a pretty tune sung with an offensively bland voice. Don’t get me started on Death Cab For Cutie, please.

Onto the songs, then. The best song on the EP by far, in my opinion, is “Long Haul”, a wonderful slice of Beatlesque bliss that comes close to going on for too long at 4 minutes but gets it away with it by virtue of its loveliness. Everything here is good- the stuttering snare/hihat pattern, the slinky, melodic bass, and most importantly, the excellent vocal melody of the verse. It’s the definition of hook in that it’s not only catchy, but that it seems to live in its own self-contained universe, as if it always existed, which in my mind is the very definition of a great pop song, and evidence of a very talented tunesmith. Either that or he stole it from something else. But I don’t think so, and even if it were the case, I don’t care, as I’m wont to defend thievery as a means of rescuing good parts from bad songs. Lyrically, “Longhaul” also stands out as the finest track- nothing in this song makes me cringe or makes me say “ooh- could have said that better”. I would have shaved a minute off of it, (but then again, I consider Alien Lanes to be a concise, well-fleshed out piece of work) but overall, it’s pretty close to a classic.

As for the rest, they range from pretty good to very good. The opener the more rocking “Wrecking Force”, is probably the least of the songs offered on the EP, lacking a really convincing and interesting vocal melody and being a little undercooked feeling. A good indication of this is the usage of the open hi-hat during part of the verse This has always been a sign to me of a song not arranged with enough deliberation. The open hi hat is a tonally destructive technique that can kill the overall sound and drive of a song when used in the wrong context. Lyrically, "Wrecking Force"
both offends and delights, offering us the terrible “you can be anyone, or just some mother’s wasted son- you can be your own God if you want to”, and later, offering us the wonderful “you can’t fit good company up your nose”, almost as if two different people penned the verse and chorus. Anyway, overall, not bad, but they can do a lot better.

As for the last two songs, “Missing Pieces”, which has a nice Cure vibe to it and an amazing-sounding guitar breakdown, pleases me well, though there’s that goddamn open hi hat again. One or two lamentable lines in this one, but they pull it off anyhow. Again, at 5 minutes, it’s a bit too long, but the last minute is when you get that guitar break- terrifically reverb-laden and pretty. The closer, “The Start Of Something”, is something like Belle & Sebastian really bearing out their Smiths influence. It’s certainly the most derivative of the lot, but that’s only because it does something really specific, and in my mind, it’s the second best song here, which means it’s a hell of a good one. It’s got that great Motown bounce that both Morrissey and Murdoch are so fond of and Srivastava really puts on a nice Moz/Murdoch hybrid voice just for the occasion. The cello / ride cymbal breakdown just before the end is simply lovely. No lyrical snafus at all, either. Well done, gentlemen.

So, in short, or rather, in four or five paragraphs, Voxtrot’ S/T EP is a worthy purchase, particularly for the terrific “Long Haul” and the really really good “Missing Pieces”, but additionally because this is a band who, as long as they are careful to avoid occasional tendencies toward lyrical triteness, overlong songs, and bland vocal performances, is going to do very well, and will probably record a full-length or two which are remembered for a long time. Ramesh Srivastava is clearly a talented songwriter and the band is a top-notch pop machine (special mention goes to the absolutely fantastic and McCartneyesque bass playing and the lithe, song-minded drumming, open hi hat snafus excepted). The production here doesn’t have that egregious hyper-loud, dry sound that so many recordings indie and otherwise suffer from, and in fact some prudent choices were made that assist the songs nicely. Hopefully when they record again they won’t try to “go pro”. That would be a terrible mistake. Wonderful work, boys. Just don’t get cocky and spoil the grit of it all.

http://www.myspace.com/voxtrot

www.voxtrot.net