Just Left Town

Album Review

With their third outing, Columbus, Ohio's the Big Creak refines the diamond-in-the-rough aesthetic that characterized their earlier offerings both in terms of songcraft and production values. Self-produced, the album was engineered by Jon Powers and Brandon Gray, and is a huge leap in terms not only of presenting the varied textures this band effortlessly puts on sonic display, but also in terms of subtlety. Frontman and principal songwriter Jim Koch has learned to focus his wildly ambitious vision, channeling his lyrical subjects to their essences. The band weave in and around the melodies, underscoring his quirky lyrics with beat conscious, warm and fluid, and indie rock, that draws as much on the edgier side of Ben Folds as it does on the cross genre pop song sensibilities of Emitt Rhodes and Murray Attaway's Guadalcanal Diary; in places, it even graces the margins of the jam band aesthetic. Here tough, jagged rock, new wave Americana', funky ska and reggae beats, timeless pop hooks, a fractured, bluesy, finger-popping swing and the aplomb to weave them all together takes the indie rock monolith and gives it wings. Standout tracks include "Just Left Town," "The First Move," "Half the Night," "Wendy," and "Love Your Life Tonight."