Gentleman Auction House - Alphabet Graveyard

Genre indie-pop Publisher Emergency Umbrella Records External Links Gentleman Auction House Website Gentleman Auction House MySpace Page

The strangest thing about Gentleman Auction House’s first full length album Alphabet Graveyard, is that they seem to do everything right while still making all the wrong choices and ending up with generically instrumented indie pop. Almost every idea from these songs sounds like something I’ve heard before without being as memorable. Their strongest suit is with the second, fourth and sixth tracks, “Call It Casual,” “We Used To Dream About Bridges,” and “In A Bed of Scissor Arms.” These songs are their greatest on this album. They’re doing what a band of two guitars, two keyboards, many scattered random instruments, and two percussionists/drummers should be doing: sounding full and exuberant like an orchestra. Wouldn’t that be the point of doubling up on instruments, vocals, and having the ability to play all of these instruments at once? I certainly see it with this album, where at its worse the songs are bare with what sounds like a single composer, and at best filled with seemingly a symphony-sized band. The band itself was originally created as an outlet for the lead singer and song composer Eric Enger but, according to their website, “… has gradually blossomed into a seven-piece ensemble….” This is fortunate for him, for it is with group vocals and bombastic instrumentation that his songs shine.

The overall album seems to be about themes and emotions associated with growing up, relationships, missing friendship, building your own life, and hoping for better days to come. The first track, “ABCDEFGraveyard,” has a degree of catchiness to it, and the layering in this song is the most massive of the album. This track puts forth the effort, grabs your attention and tries to keep it, but the yelling and drum beat at the beginning feels rather off-putting rather than a jovial call to join in. Listening to “Call It Casual,” the band I’m From Barcelona comes to mind. Gentleman Auction House’s use of many vocals and wonderful trumpet melody, matched with xylophone and a fun bouncy rhythm. The lyrics in this song catalogue the many feelings and attempts to keep someone interested or progress in a “casual” relationship. This song is truly great, and while it may hold nothing on any I’m From Barcelona song it still stands out as the gem of the album. With such a catchy pop sense, “Call It Casual” makes the album worth hearing and will leave you with that trumpet line stuck in your head all day. Lyrically, the theme of start-stop relationships and whether love is in the cards or if it’s time to walk away appears repeatedly throughout Alphabet Graveyard.

The album’s low point comes with a song which is clearly a ballad of Bright Eyes proportion. “Good Behavior” continues with the idea of naiveté in dating and attempts to grab a better shot of true love. Failing to ever really communicate what the nostalgia of the music is about, the song is too bare bones and disaffected to come off as a true song of heartache.

For a first full length album, Alphabet Graveyard shows a band with promise, and for fans of Papercuts or Architecture in Helsinki, this album will strike a strong chord. As is goes with all bands, save prodigy acts, there is a time for growth. This album sets the stage for that growth, and makes me eager to hear what comes out with their second album. With lengthy touring, the experience gained in recording this Alphabet Graveyard, their next will be an album full of gems. For now, I would stick with “Call It Casual” for a fun summer song that will make you feel like a kid at a birthday party.