In late 2004 when folk was just breaking through and about to become the new emo, I was caught off guard by a band called The Snake The Cross The Crown. Opening for Owen, I was dumbfounded by the passion these gentlemen brought to the stage. Shortly after witnessing the spectacle that was their live show, I picked up their album Mander Sails and felt cheated. Something was missing on this record; the experience I had listening to them on record wasn't nearly as enthralling as catching them live. The more and more I listened to Mander Sails, the more I began to see why. It's a disjointed album with too much vision. In their live set, The Snake The Cross The Crown played songs that were almost exclusively in the folk vein. But on the record there were a number of songs that were closer to Pink Floyd than they were to Creedence Clearwater Revival. Nothing about this kind of spacey rock was bad, but it made getting into the album extremely difficult. Months later I saw them again; this time they chose a set consisting heavily of these atmospheric songs. With a lot of the ambiance in them coming from keyboard and other electronic effects, the sound was quite awful and the set was not enjoyable for me at all.
Around the same time I had caught wind of news that the band was canceling all their shows and calling it quits. I was stunned by the news as they have a lot of potential. If they could just figure out a sound instead of delving into many too genres, thus splitting their fan base, they could be huge. Three months ago I came across an interesting piece of news: The Snake The Cross The Crown was back and a new album was on the way. Which brings us to Cotton Teeth.
Apparently in the band's down time they did some serious introspection, looking deep down into their core and deciding that they were at a crossroads with their musical vision and it was time to choose which path to take. I knew exactly what this meant. Cotton Teeth would either be almost all folk or completely experimental. I had my hopes on folk and they were pleasantly met.
If the folk styled songs on Mander Sails can be considered as campfire tales, then these new tracks are no doubt road songs of lessons learned from hours of staring out of van as it speeds across the highways of America's heartland. If the songs on Mander Sails can be considered as honest and sincere, then the material on Cotton Teeth is an even more soulful expression of those sentiments. These boys weren't just sitting around twiddling their thumbs deciding if they wanted to be in a band or not. They were trying to figure it out what it really means to be musicians.
Focusing on the folk genre, The Snake The Cross The Crown expands their sound, making it much more full-bodied than your typical folk stylings of just a voice and guitar. The piano does a lot of the work, often providing an underlying harmony and melody to the already well-developed song structure. The percussion is often multi-layered including tambourines or sleigh bells in addition to the drum work. Almost every song provides clean or acoustic work but often supplements it with electric guitars when the sound needs to be expanded. The overall musicianship completely outshines the band's previous work and I'm sure you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks different.
But, for those who did enjoy the "big rock" elements of Mander Sails over the folk elements, don't think you'll be disappointed. This still rocks, but only a different way. Instead of going for an atmospheric tone, they focus on generating multiple layers of sound, many acoustic, many electric, all very warm and natural sounding. Instead of floating off into space Cotton Teeth stays down to earth for the most part, including only one or two interstellar jam sessions.
Cotton Teeth also brings a shift in lyrical content. Instead of directing inward, singing hymns of what will become of the song's narrators, the lyrics are much more narrative, telling tales of characters most likely imagined or encountered on their travels. Perhaps they are not as inspirational but in my opinion they are much more enjoyable to listen to.
For those still trying to figure out my opinion on Cotton Teeth, let me put it clearly: this album is really fucking good.
