HIDDEN GEM: THE WRENS- SECAUCUS

by David Miller in Album Reviews, Editorials, Opinion Posts, Reviews

There are a handful of albums that I gush about consistently. I can’t shut up about them- To my friends, or to my friends’ friends. Largely, because it amazes me that these records weren’t more popular.

I’ve waited a long time for the opportunity to gush openly about one such record:

Artist: The Wrens

Album: Secaucus

Label: Grass Records/Wind-Up Records

Sometimes it’s hard to look past how a song is arranged or performed in order to notice just how well written a song actually is.  This has been the case with a lot of my favorite bands- Pixies, Wilco, etc.  In high school, the pure, raw energy of The Wrens’ sophmore release, Secaucus, was enough to keep me at attention through all nineteen of its songs.  It’s not an album that I’ve ever gotten tired of.  There’s a great dynamic to this record throughout; from screaming (and I mean SCREAMING) guitars, to absolute tearjerkers.  Melodies, harmonies, and counter-melodies- and, let’s face it, no one writes counter-melodies anymore- can go obstructed at times.  A closer listen, however, unlocks some of the best pop song writing of the mid-90’s.

Secaucus kicks off in high gear with the raucous “Yellow Number Three”- a short punch-in-the-face of a song that’s over before you even realize the album has started- followed by the infectious “Built In Girls”.  Some bands spend their entire careers trying to pen a pop song as perfect as “Built In Girls”, and the energy that comes across here helps to make this song unignorable.

Unlike the vast majority of music from the same time period, the production on Secaucus is completely unique and manages to keep from sounding dated.  The recklessness of songs like “Indie 500″, and intensity of “Hats Off to Marriage, Baby”, are the perfect contrast to the sultriness of “Safe and Comfortable”, or the subtlety of a song like “Jane Fakes a Hug”- a slow and somber song, with a vocal arrangement reminiscent of the genuine pop song writing (a la the Beach Boys), that gradually builds into a free-for-all of feedback and noise.  And, as this album further shifts its gears, there are successful experiments like “Destruction/Drawn”- two songs played simultaneously.  Simply unplug one of your speakers to listen to an individual song, or listen to the two played together (which sounds surprisingly good too).

All in all, Secaucus is easily one of the most ambitious albums the 90’s ever saw.  Yet, despite it’s influence on many of today’s most successful indie-rock acts, this record spent nearly ten years in the abyss of bargain bin obscurity before being reissued by Wind-Up records last year.  For fans of Guided By Voices, Pavement, or the Pixies, this album will certainly get a lot of mileage.