Blitzen Trapper
Wild Mountain Nation (Lidkercow Ltd)
By Wilson Brown
Published: July 8th, 2007 | 6:30pm
Everything I've read about Blitzen Trapper's third full-length Wild Mountain Nation inevitably lists something about this Portland sextet jumping through genres like it’s nobody's business. And that's a true statement. But it’s the way the band does it with such nonchalance and pulls it off with a messy, ragged panache that makes the record so admirable.
The group hoists itself from Deliverance-mountain jamborees on "Wild Mountain Jam" to feedback drenched throw-ups like "Miss Spiritual Tramp" but can calm itself down to create lilting pop breath-takers like "Futures & Folly" and "Summer Town." The variety and scrappy one-take feel of Wild Mountain Nation draws to mind another sloppy masterpiece — Pavement's Wowee Zowee— which was dogged with lukewarm reviews at the onset for its inconsistency to stay with one sound but found some acceptance a few years later. In fact, this is the album of 2007 for any bespectacled indie rock kid with ADHD who lives by Wowee Zowee-era Pavement and doesn't mind a little James Gang southern-rock guitars infused into the mix.
Many times Blitzen sounds like Pavement if it had grown up listening to Joe Walsh instead of Creedence. Oddly enough, the band's biggest strength is also its greatest weakness. The constant variety could be the band's downfall for any listener hoping each song is strong enough to stand on its own. The weaker jams are thrown in between stronger songs that beg for repeated listens leaving the several of the one-off hoedowns to suffer and become fly over country on your CD player's skip button.
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