The Paper Chase offered a truly frightening sound when they emerged
in the late ’90s. The rhythm section hit like shoulders to steel doors,
while dissonant, jazzy guitar lines screamed out in harsh, violent
blurts and samples of knives being sharpened met toy-piano melodies
that added horror-movie atmosphere. But it’s singer John Congleton’s
crazed vocals that makes the records not just disturbing, but
engrossing. Congleton shouts, moans and wheezes like a padded-cell
denizen, and the result is fantastic. Then something happened a few
years back: The Paper Chase started to focus on songwriting. Melodies
replaced rants, hooks replaced disjointed riffing and a band once
shrouded in mystique became merely an indie group with a slightly
strange cadence. Someday This Could All be Yours Vol. 1, the
band’s tribute to natural disasters, continues this trend. Tracks like
“Your Money or Your Life (The Comet)” and “This Is Only a Test (The
Tornado)” manage to recapture some of the band’s early charm. But for
the most part, they’ve ditched their madness-centered avant-garde
sound. The Paper Chase may still be too far left on the dial to earn a
“sell-out” title, but the increasing pop elements aren’t helping
them.
— Matt Whelihan
This article appears in May 27 – Jun 2, 2009.
