Music Review: The Shouting Matches

By now, the mythos of Justin Vernon’s band, Bon Iver, has been well-established. Man breaks up with girlfriend, man breaks up with old band, man retreats to a cabin in the woods alone to record an album, man comes back and experiences breakthrough success. The later chapters are a little more confusing (i.e. man from the woods is heavily sampled on Kanye West’s materialist magnum opus, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy), but the basic American rugged individualism is still there in any telling of Bon Iver’s tale.

That simple story, unfortunately, makes Vernon seem much more of an artistic loner than he actually is. He has released albums with no less than seven groups other than Bon Iver throughout his career, often collaborating with members of that aforementioned “old band,” DeYarmond Edison. His new trio, The Shouting Matches, which includes DeYarmond Edison/Megafaun/all-around Durham musician Phil Cook in addition to drummer Brian Moen, has just released its new album Grownass Man. And while it may not reach the transcendent levels of Vernon’s best work, Grownass Man is a hell of a good ride along the way.

Importantly: The Shouting Matches sound nothing at all like Bon Iver. I promise, for those undoubtedly annoyed readers, that this is the last time I’ll mention Vernon’s other group. While Bon Iver (damnit) share a frontman in Vernon, a listener wouldn’t realize it without prior knowledge. Vernon here forgoes his well-known falsetto for a noticeably deeper voice that works well on what is essentially a throwback blues-rock album, a ramshackle version of Neil Young & Crazy Horse by way of Tom Petty.

The opening track, “Avery Hill,” is as unassuming an opener as one could imagine. A bluesy guitar, a simple drum beat and Vernon’s solid but unaffecting voice make for a warm introduction but little else. Alas, most of the album’s songs follow the same pattern—ask me to recite one memorable lyric, or hum one memorable riff, and the best I could give you is a shrug.

There are some standout tracks, however, that interrupt the pleasantly boring flow of the album. “Seven Sisters” ups the energy level by just the slightest amount, but the slight readjustment makes Vernon’s lyrics (“I can’t find my lover,” he sings) seem just urgent enough to make the listener’s ears perk up. The closer, “I Need a Change,” simply nails the laid-back vibe for which the entire album strives. It’s the conclusion to a solid, yet unremarkable, get-together with a few friends, filled with the good, relaxed vibes such a party would entail.

At the risk of damning it with faint praise, Grownass Man is content with providing some of those good vibes and little else. It’s not an album that demands your attention, but in the background at a Memorial Day Barbeque, it’ll do just fine.