After a strong debut effort, most bands fear the momentum-killing sophomore slump. As Austin, Texas based ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead proved, however, deferring critical disappointment for several albums can be even more damaging. From their promising self-titled debut to its grandiose follow-up ""Madonna"" and the superb, apocalyptic ""Source Tags and Codes,"" Trail of Dead rode a wave of near-unanimous critical approval. Consequently, when the wave broke on 2005's disappointing Worlds Apart, the resulting shock left the band with no clear direction forward and very little on which to build.
Trail of Dead's latest, So Divided, reflects the band's awkward position. Instead of borrowing from the sound of their successful early albums, Trail of Dead now appear to be looking in all directions at once for new ideas. Unsurprisingly, this approach yields mixed results.
The album's first real song (following a ponderous introductory track), ""Stand in Silence,"" retreads the same radio-friendly ground as Worlds Apart's clumsily political title track. Thankfully, the band does much better the second time around with a smart, self-aware critique of their own changed fortunes: ""I had a band, had a song / I had a vision, where's my vision gone?""
The following track, ""Wasted State of Mind,"" is the album's obvious standout and the best candidate for shaping the sound of a new Trail of Dead. A galloping percussion track that begs odd comparisons to Yoshi's ""Super Mario World"" theme music backs up a piano-driven verse which features Conrad Keely's strongest vocal performance to date. The spare, percussive pre-chorus gives way to a lushly produced, marching chorus that packs more drama than all of the rest of Worlds Apart. In short, the song makes good use of every tool at the band's disposal.
Most of the rest of So Divided is a hit-or-miss leap from one style to another. ""Naked Sun"" serves no purpose other than to suggest that Trail of Dead should stay as far away from the blues as possible before going on to eat up two minutes with a pointless outro that awkwardly splits the difference between Led Zeppelin and chamber music. Guided by Voices' ""Gold Heart Mountain Top Queen Directory"" is fleshed out as a beautiful orchestral number, but it passes by too quickly and with too little weight to be compelling. On the other hand, the unexpected Britpop turn on ""Eight Days of Hell"" is a catchy, wryly funny take on an ill-fated trip to London.
The band's problem on So Divided is that they seem to be holding on to all of the pretensions from Worlds Apart, packing in extended instrumental segues and padding out track lengths, without bringing along any of the intensity from their early albums. Still, So Divided leaves Trail of Dead in a much better position than they were in a year ago. The band now has a way to move forward. All they have to do is shed the baggage of the last two years and follow it.
