Listenable (3.5/5)

so, is the opening track proof that selling your soul for success doesn't work?

yes, i'm ranking this higher than source tags. in fact, i'm going to rank everything since then higher than source tags. like it or not, this is the first record that represents an attempt at a characteristic sound, meaning it's really reasonably acknowledged as their first record. you can love source tags if you really want, but you can't deny that it's not in any way a creative record, nor was anything before it. take a little sonic youth, a little pumpkins, a little nirvana, a little radiohead, a little explosions...it was a constant cut+paste job, with essentially no innovation. you might hear a sense of immediacy that i don't, but that's probably because you're comparing it to radio rock and i'm comparing it to gybe! and sonic youth. if you want immediacy and passion from 2002, check that out. you'll throw your precious source tags out the fucking window as commercialized radio-directed tripe.

so, yes. i'm going to claim that the trail of the dead took an artistic turn after source codes and it's philistine audience wasn't able to pull the shit out of it's ears for long enough to acknowledge it. mad yet? good. go in the corner and cry with your favourite emo band.

so, the shift is for the better, then. next question: did they manage to accomplish what they set out to accomplish? well, no. not even close.

however, there are few glaring missteps. true, the title track shouldn't exist. russia is not my homeland, and the whole idea of including that track with that title deserves a healthy wtf? yes, it's front loaded. but, besides that, this is a decent abstract pop record that can be enjoyed more or less from start to finish without cringing, and that's something that can't be said for any of their previous output.

overall, this places the disc as a transition record into the string of records that, for better or worse, will define the trail of dead as an independent entity unto itself rather than a substandard post-mortem adjoin to the alternative rock movement. gone, thankfully, are the excursions into rank screamo. it might not be perfect, in fact it's not even that good, but it *is* a step in a more creative direction.

so, this is not where they end but where they begin.

sorry, kids.

http://grooveshark.com/#!/album/Worlds+Apart/1244875