The Raw & the Cooked: The Airborne Toxic Event Releases Two Very Different Albums

The Airborne Toxic Event

Anyone who knows me and my musical tastes knows that The Airborne Toxic Event is one of my upper-echelon, favorite bands.  I have followed their career since their first album, and it has been three years since I reviewed their third album.  For this review, I get to review two albums - "Dope Machines" and "Songs of God and Whiskey" - both released in 2015, within days of each other.

From their first album, this band has appealed to me - part folk rock, part rockabilly, part Springsteen, part The Smiths, part Neil Diamond.  Over the years, many people have accused this band of stealing other people's sounds, but I don't care.  Nobody makes music with as much passion, no one has as poignant and poetic lyrics as these guys. And I have always liked how they had companion videos for all of their songs on YouTube called "Bombastic Videos", alternate versions of their songs complete with acoustic guitars, stand-up bass, and chamber orchestras.  In many ways, I preferred these versions to the glossy studio takes of these songs.

Last year, I got very excited - along with my other friends and family who are fans - when the marketing for "Dope Machines" started to hit the interwebs.  When the first single, "Wrong", came out, I admit, I was taken a little aback.  It is essentially a synthpop song.  The raw lyrics and powerful voice of Mikel Jollet were there, but set to an electronic beat.  I played it for my former wife, Temple, and she immediately liked it.  I mean, it's not a bad song, but is this the direction that the band was taking?

A few weeks later, the entire album came out, and, sure enough, the band had shifted directions to make a electronic pop album.  Yes, I was disappointed.  I wanted stand-up basses, not synthesizers.  Nevertheless, I gave it a listen.  There is no denying - The Airborne Toxic Event are great musicians, great songwriters.  Even though it was not what I expected from them, it is a really good record, and, taken for what it is, a change of pace, I really like it.

After starting with the first single, the album continues with "One Time Thing" that starts simply - a dance beat, a guitar on heavy reverb plucking out an infectious rhythm with saucy lyrics like:

"Sounds like your breath is full of moonshine

And cheap ass wine

My best friend told me I should just stop 

Looking for a sign"

Then it the song starts building up layers, gathering intensity.  After listening to this song, I had hope that this record would be as good as their others, and I was right.  The title track, "Dope Machines" starts with the same groovy beat, adding shrill keyboards, but unraveling in a killer hook that makes the song vibrate.  "California" is a sweet pop song that shimmers with Jollet's wistful words tremulously cementing an emotional resonance to it.  "Time To Be a Man" is an explosive anthem that showcases violinist Anna Bulbrook's vocal abilities as she takes over the mic for a while.  "Hell and Back", with its "Na na na" chorus" is one of the few songs on this record that is acoustic.  "My Childish Bride" is a soft lament that kind of has an OMD feel.  The next two songs - "The Thing About Dreams" and "Something You Lost" - are unique in that they share musical themes, the first a piano tune and Jollet singing falsetto, and the, second with ethereal keyboards, blend together beautifully.  The record climaxes with "Chains", probably my favorite tune on the record, which starts out subdued and gradually builds to a frenzy, much in the way "Sometime Around Midnight" did.

I would have been happy with "Dope Machines".  But imagine my surprise when the band released, the very next day, a collection called "Songs of God and Whiskey".  This would be their "bombastic" album!  Departing from the synthpop of its companion release, this record was a collection of acoustic songs that the band has accumulated over their ten-year history, and I can tell you - it's drunken and divine!  Like the title suggests, many of the themes are biblical and revolve around the bar settings that seems prevalent with this band.  The record is just as danceable as "Dope Machines', but instead of being carried by electronic beats, this one is harnessed by snares, acoustic guitars, stand-up bass, trumpets,and violins.

"Poor Isaac" starts out this collection with righteous fury, talking about Abraham sacrificing Issac as God commanded him in the Bible with biting lyrics like:

"And I'm so pissed tonight

I feel just like

The last remaining Canaannite

And I don't think I'll be returning

And if you want to see the irony

And the savage price of piety

There's a lot of us who're going to be burning

How does it feel?

"Cocaine and Abel" starts out with an acoustic hum and sprouts up into a rockabilly canter that will have you howling along with Jollet, along with a horn section.  "A Certain Type of Girl" demonstrates what is great about American music, starting out a washboard acting as rhythm section and goes right into bluegrass with a tickling piano and fiddle.  "Change and Change and Change" is reminiscent of I.R.S. bands from the '80s like The dB's or R.E.M.  There are a few straight-up folk songs like "April Is the Cruelest Month", "Why Why Why", and "The Fall of Rome".  "The Line of Cars" mixes an upbeat acoustic gallop with a soaring fiddle.  There is an acoustic version of "California" on here, and "Strangers" adds sheet upon sheet of sounds that it will curl your toes.

When most people think of acoustic music, they think of languid, sleepy music in coffee houses.  This acoustic record is fast-paced and full-bodied like a frothy mug of ale.  It's folk music you can dance to.  "Dope Machines" is a really good album.  "Songs of God and Whiskey" is a really great album, and that's the difference.  It has cemented The Airborne Toxic Event in their place as one of my all-time favorite bands.