RATING: 4 out of 5
Milwaukee sextet Decibully’s third full-length release Sing Out America! finally successfully recreates their immersive live experience on record. The band’s roster includes several multi-instrumentalists, and instrumentation changes from song to song. Americana and roots rock influences pervade the album, but Decibully’s identity comes from their additions to these traditionalist foundations. Banjos, harmonicas, acoustic guitars, and lap steel guitars blend with a Rhodes organ and synthesizers to produce a dense, sparkling sound that is equal parts roots and polish. Although the lyrics tend to be overly dramatic, lead singer William Seidel’s vocals pick up the slack with a simple beauty completely lacking in any affectation. The album opens with the immediately engaging “I’m Gonna Tell You.” Here the band follows through every possibility made available by their unique blend of influences and instrumentation. Simple acoustic guitar and banjo passages with almost-whispered vocals give way to towering, swirling waves of keys and samples. The plodding, deliberate beat carries through the dynamic shifts, but in the end gives way to handclaps that set up “Megan & Magill.” Sequencing these two songs in this way to begin the album shows that Decibully has both a refreshingly old-fashioned understanding of the possibilities of the album format and a clear grasp of the inherent contradictions in their sound. After this opening, the album settles in for a collection of solid, but less remarkable, songs. The remaining highpoint is “Sing Out! Sing Out! Sing Out!” which comes the closest to revisiting the power of the album’s opening.
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