So Divided (Digital Version)

Given their guitar smashing, bottle breaking tendencies and, well, that friggin' band name of theirs, it's hard to imagine ...Trail of Dead suffering a quarter-life crisis. So Divided skips from tribal percussion samples ("Wasted State of Mind") to saloon piano leads ("Life") to unabashedly Beatles-like pop ("Eight Days of Hell") without so much as a flinch. So, more like a complete mental breakdown, presented in unedited form by main multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Conrad Keely. While he's never sounded happy before, Keely sounds more embittered than ever here, as he wonders if he's wasted his time rocking out all these years and pretty much ruins the party by being the pessimistic guy in the room. Not the mealy-mouthed mope in the corner, either. No, Keely sounds like he's about to crack as he promises to put lovers and freedom fighters "out of (their) misery." Whether he means that in a literal sense or is simply showing us the truth about love and loss, peace and war, matters little. What matters is the variety ...Trail of Dead leaves behind while on the warpath, right down to the Cure-coping "Sunken Dreams" and a surprisingly colorful (and heartfelt) cover of the Guided By Voices standard "Gold Heart Mountain Top Queen Directory."