Play Or Nay

The Redwalls - De Nova (Capitol)

Reinventing the wheel in rock and roll just doesn't happen over night. Often, bands have placed their stamp on rock music by taking pages from its past and giving it a new, fresh spin. The Redwalls don't add much of a different take on 1960s rock, but they do celebrate the influences with honesty and flare (just look how they dress).

On just their second album, the quartet out of Deerfield, IL were signed to Capitol Records and have made their major label debut with De Nova. Barely into their twenties, The Redwalls perform with the hunger and arrogance of a band that knows how good they are and how good they can become. You'd almost think that if they were teamed against The Rolling Stones today that The Redwalls would give the Stones a good run for their money.

Between Logan Baren, brother Justin, and Andrew Langer, The Redwalls display a three-piece harmony team that pack a lot of the punch to the band's songs. Probably not since R.E.M.'s trio of Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, and Bill Berry has a band really developed their vocals in such a way that they are just as important as the guitar parts, like The Beatles or The Beach Boys. Right off the bat, songs like "Robinson Crusoe" and "On My Way" suck you in with their attitude and their swing.

A lot of that stems from vocalist and guitarist Logan Baren. The young singer greatly echoes a young John Lennon with a touch of Liam Gallagher's venomous vocal spit. The themes on De Nova are pretty basic: the crush on the girl ("Love Her"), no desire for school ("It's Alright"), and just plain feeling like you're on a roll ("On My Way"). But there are moments of consciousness that really shine through; bent up frustration towards the FCC in "Falling Down" and the Dylan-esque look at war in "Glory Of War" give the album some added substance that make it a much more solid album.

Albeit a better effort from the band's first album Universal Blues (2000), The Redwalls don't throw many surprises on De Nova but give a lot of reasons why there's plenty of promise on the horizon. It would definitely fall under the category of "Nothing You Haven't Heard Before" just as bands like The Strokes. The Redwalls get a pass for their sophomore album. If they are to shake off the heavy weight of Beatles labels they even now shurg off--something Oasis can't seem to get past after ten years--The Redwalls best think of a way to make people believe otherwise. The grading is just going to get harder from now on.