Departure

Album Description
The Mammals new album Departure is just that; a work that shows the band moving towards a completely unique sound. The rocking energy of fiddles and banjos has been augmented with electric guitar, keyboards and a heavy rhythm section. The songs are political. When you see a wildly successful young band building a huge and devoted following all over the world, the last thing you might expect is a departure. But that’s exactly what the Mammals have brought with their latest album, aptly titled Departure, on Signature Sounds.

Unlike their live shows and past Mammals albums, there is no traditional music on this album. There aren’t really any foot-stompers. And the politics, while still present in many of the songs, are more subtle, lurking powerfully below the surface. While you can still catch the band’s folky roots showing through in parts, the new album features noticeably more rock moments. “Departure could easily get put in the rock section of a record store, yet the instrumentation of the band hasn’t changed much,” says Tao Rodriguez-Seeger. “We added some organ sounds and a few electric guitar overdubs, but for the most part, it’s fiddle, banjo, guitar, upright bass, drums and lots of singing. I’m most happy with the way it just sounds like a damn good band at the peak of their creative process.”

The Woodstock, NY-based Mammals, who formed in 2001, refuse to stand still musically. That they have thrived in the midst of a widespread old-time, neo-traditional movement indicates the open-mindedness of that community. The Mammals, a mainstay at major music festivals, are renowned for their unpredictable live shows and high-energy festival sets, and along the way, they have also built a reputation for being master interpreters of great songwriting. The Mammals’ own songs hit new heights on this album.Amazon.com
The Mammals aren’t the first band to mix an indie-rock sensibility with bluegrass sounds, but they’re gradually becoming one of the best. On their fourth album, the New York-based band pushes against old-time templates with bright electric guitar figures, decidedly non-purist drums, bookish diction–principal songwriter Michael Merenda fancies rhymes like “façade,” “barrage,” and “Carthage”–and a sometimes poignant, sometimes pissed vision of life during wartime. “I’m Trying to Remember What City I Know You From” could be a Rilo Kiley song, with Ruth Ungar, in a dry but sexy voice, fumbling for a fan’s name and wondering where they were when yet another war was declared. Political but never topical, the songs are empathetic when describing a woman left alone on a homestead with nothing but the bones of her family killed in battle, playful when asking, “If my guitar falls on a landmine, do you think that anyone hears?” And when the band succumbs to anger, they do so with a striking Spanish prayer sung by banjo-picker Tao Rodriguez-Seeger (Pete’s grandson): “Solo le pido a Dios que la guerra no me sea indiferente” (“I only ask of God that I not become indifferent to war”). Given their indie sensibility, the Nirvana cover “Come as You Are” comes off as gratuitous; the country war-horse “Satisfied Mind,” by contrast, reflects what’s best about this album: its intelligence, discovery and conviction. –Roy Kasten
Departure