At first, I was disappointed that Marksmen's full-length debut lacked the propulsive percussion that made their lone prior release, The Blue And Grey EP, sound so fresh. However, the traditional drum mix allows the other ingredients of this incredible local band to shine. Their more-polished sound covers a broad swath of musical territory: rockin' alt-country raw enough for a bar, pensive folk suitable for a coffeehouse, and ample hooks and riffs among their artillery made for a much larger stage. Furthermore, moving the percussive textures back allows frontman Matt Segallos' distinctive voice and lyrics to shine out in front, where they belong.
Yearning and heartbreak, spirituality and disillusionment, inner strength and substance abuse — we've heard about it all before. But Segallos possesses the rare ability to craft stories with heart-wrenching emotion and imagery that stand on their own merit in that cliched, lyrics-as-poetry manner.
