We're All In This Alone

少し早過ぎたUSインディの原点が初LP化で蘇る!

90年代中頃よりNYにて野球用語から拝借したMENDOZA LINEの名前で活動を開始。KINDERCOREやBAR/NONEを渡り歩き豊かでポップな音楽性を持ちながら2007年に解散...今回彼等の活動で一番の名盤と言って良い「WE' RE ALL IN THIS ALONE」が古巣BAR/NONEより初LP化となって再発!

ZOMBIESやBILLY NICHOLLS並の英国式ソフトロックセンスと、BOB DYLANやFLEETWOOD MAC由来のしっぽりとした佇まい、そしてWILCOやPAVEMENT、BREEDERS直系のUSインディサウンドがごちゃ混ぜになって18曲の形に!可愛いポップな音を覗かせたかと思えば、耳をつんざくギターが猛威を振るい、さらにはブラス隊も登場して2010年代後半のインディロックを先取りしている部分も!色々な音を飲み込みつつ全てをフラットにして極上のインディロックにする辺り、編集能力が凄まじく飛び抜けています。全曲がピークと言っても過言じゃありません!

解散した直後に始まったUSインディブームに間に合っていれば違った未来があったのでしょうか....そんなもしも展開を妄想してしまうほど、活気と意欲に満ち溢れた本作を是非ゲットしましょう!

The Mendoza Line has for so long made charmingly homespun if ultimately insignificant pop records that the woozy beauty and emotional depth of We're All in This Alone is nothing short of revelatory; the product of the band's near breakup and relocation from their native Georgia to Brooklyn (all crowding into the same apartment, no less), the album channels their interpersonal turmoil into a gorgeously understated examination of the sexual dynamics that divide and conquer men and women alike. The songs proceed in point/counterpoint fashion, with Margaret Maurice and Shannon McArdle contributing the distaff perspective while Timothy Bracy and Peter Hoffman refute the charges; the debate culminates with the record's centerpiece, the lovely "Where You'll Land," in which both sides at the very least agree that it will all end in tears, regardless of where the blame lies. The wise-ass bite of the lyrics and the ramshackle radiance of the band's spaciously jangly melodies mask the bitter truths at the heart of We're All in This Alone; in outlining the essential differences that separate the sexes, the Mendoza Line's songs feed on resignation and recrimination. The irony, of course, is that the same things that hold the band's music together drive the band's members (and their respective genders) farther apart. ~ Jason Ankeny