“Colorguard”
from the album Beartrap Island
2006
iTunes
MP3 – “Colorguard” [right-click/save-as]
Division Day’s history is filled with lots of quirky events that have only gone on to help shape the band into what they’ve become today. From moving into the same house without having ever played a note as a band, to traveling all the way to San Francisco to record, Division Day haven’t necessarily followed the indie rock template. Those experiences have helped make Division Day truly a band that are far from the norm.
That is especially evident on their latest release, Beartrap Island. Sounding something like Aloha mixed in with a more colorful Elbow or a moodier Doves, Division Day take a sidestep away from writing typical the typical indie rock songs that litter the bins. Instead the band prefers to infuse their songs with obtuse arrangements, that at times hint at jazz while at others hint at a nervous breakdown. The delicate nature in which each song is crafted hints at the deep thought process and the many moods at work here.
Beartrap Island manages to be frail and intricate while remaining interesting and entertaining. The songs seem constantly on the verge of shattering into pieces but are miraculously held together by the bands connectivity to them. The band, it would seem, are the songs’ glue and with a exquisite touch they wonder their way through the twelve songs on the album without sending the tunes into little pieces.
As Beartrap Island plays on it becomes glaringly obvious that Division Day understand the nature of being finicky and volatile at the same time. From the nearly bleak, “Dayenu,” to the beat driven, “Tap-Tap, Click-Click,” Beartrap Island is a record with a delicate heart but a mind that wants something more. It’s a record with a lot of sad things to say and plenty of moody musical images to carry those thoughts along. It’s a record of hurt, of despair, yet it tries to pull something positive out of all this fragility. Somehow someway, Beartrap Island manages to do that.
Division Day are not the bog standard 21st century indie rock band. Their psychiatric bills are way to expensive for that and Beartrap Island sounds like the result of many hours of therapy. It’s a quirky and doleful record, yet it manages to holdfast and pulls something good out of something bad. Beartrap Island wins the listener over because you can’t help but cheer for its success. It will tug at your heart, it will make you think, it might even make you cry and that’s why one can’t help but become attached to it. How many records or bands can you say that about?