The Republic Tigers – No Land’s Man
Record Label: Chop Shop/Atlantic
Release Date: April 19, 2011
Who?
The Republic Tigers are a rock band from Kansas City who specialize in lush, ethereal pop songs. No Land’s Man is the first new material from them since their first full-length album Keep Color dropped in May 2008.
How Is It?
It’s very much in the same musical vein as Keep Color, which is a very good thing. (Over the last three years, I’ve used every relevant opportunity to plug that album. Consider this another.) No Land’s Man keeps front-and-center the band’s mastery of haunting vocals, swirling dreamscapes and dramatic hooks, all the things that made Color an under-heralded masterpiece.
The EP’s kickoff track “Merrymake It With Me” reprises those elements that made “Buildings and Mountains” such a dynamic opener: earthy acoustic strums, spacy backing vocals and atmospheric electronic effects. It’s followed by “The Infidel”, which similarly finds The Republic Tigers at their mellow and hypnotic best. If the set has a slight hiccup, it’s with “Lonely As I Was”, which seems to underscore that this band doesn’t do peppy as well as they do pretty. The proceedings close with a remixed version of Keep Color’s “The Nerve”, an odd choice as I found that to be one of that record’s weaker (by comparison) tracks. The more rhythmic take we get here adds a refreshing new dimension to the song and would render it nearly unrecognizable were it not for the lyrics.
With just four tracks, one of which is a retread of an old song, No Land’s Man is a short little offering, but when two of those tracks are as satisfyingly true-to-form as “Merrymake It With Me” and “The Infidel”, it does its job perfectly well, whetting our appetites for the next full-length, which we can only hope comes sooner rather than later.
Name is annoyingly similar to The Republic of Wolves.
I'll agree with you there - too many bands with "republic" "wolves" or "tiger" in their names these days. Don't let that stop you from checking out the album though. The Republic Tigers play a completely different genre and this EP has to be one of my favorites this year.
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