Austin's
My Education
continue their exploratory "whatever catches our interest" path with their 2010 release, conceived as a soundtrack for a silent movie, the famous late-'20s melodrama of urban and rural love and desire by
F.W. Murnau
. It's not a surprising development given both the band's interests and its current members' other interests (bassist
Scott Telles
has done similar projects with his band
ST 37
, for instance), but divorced from the film's visual context
Sunrise
has a feeling of a curio more than a stand-alone success. Many of the seven tracks sound agreeably moody and mysterious, in a way that almost reconfirms common expectations of what the abused term "post-rock" is supposed to stand for -- but which as a result don't sound distinct from any number of other practitioners in the field, thanks to slow progressions, big arrangements, and a sense of building drama. As a result, the best tracks are the ones that stand out more thoroughly from that template.
"City Woman,"
with its shadowy, echoed suggestion of a mythic West that could suit acts like
Lee Hazlewood
and
the Walkabouts
in equal measure, is a winner, but even better might be
"A Man Alone,"
exchanging slow burn for a weightless, immediate drone and related sonic squalls, suggesting a suspension and isolation befitting the titular character's state. It's worth a listen, but one can't help but feel it would be even more worth a screening. ~ Ned Raggett