White Denim have always been a difficult band to pin down. Since their 2008 debut album Workout Holiday, they’ve run the gamut from raucous garage rock to taut indie via touches of psychedelia, prog, soul and Southern boogie. However, on 12, they have arrived at something else altogether. Sucking up aesthetic influences from the UK new wave scene via groups like Scritti Politti, Orange Juice and Aztec Camera, while absorbing the masterful dub productions of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Dennis Bovell, along with studying the songwriting chops of Nick Lowe and Jonathan Richman, they have come up with an album of shimmering pop, slick art-rock, sunshine funk and eccentric soul. “Some will see it as a dramatic shift,” says the band’s ostensible leader and creative director, James Petralli. “But I think it’s part of a natural evolution.”
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The album is the result of a period of change in Petralli’s life. He relocated his family to Los Angeles from Austin and, coupled with the restrictions of lockdown, he had to eschew his typical approach of getting a band together in a room to work it out. Instead, he threw himself deep into the process of assembling tracks digitally, pulling in contributions from players he’d sometimes never even met. And so drums, brass, woodwind, vocals and strings were all recorded and sent in from all over the country, sometimes including as many as four different drummers on one single track. “I definitely indulged in some extravagant personnel choices,” says Petralli.
However, rather than feeling messy, bitty or disjointed, he’s managed to weave together something wonderfully cohesive that in many ways, despite the vast number of contributors, is a seemingly singular vision he has carved out for the band. It’s the first ever record where Petralli has engineered it and been the main producer, stating he has “touched every sound that’s on there”, and the focus on detail, crisp production and immaculate delivery certainly suggests this is the kind of record made by a man who became deeply locked into the process.
The result is very much a studio album; a proudly hi fidelity recording that boasts glistening production, elaborate compositions and eloquent arrangements. Although, ironically, despite being assembled digitally in a converted one-car garage in Petralli’s Pasadena residence – a process that was intended to utilise as many benefits as possible of modern recording methods – it’s something that sounds like it was recorded in a sprawling analogue studio in the 1970s, such is the engulfing warmth and sonic richness that permeates through, and radiates from, the album.
The opening “Light On” sets the tone for an album that is broad in scope, vision and ideas, as well as bursting with textures, sounds and instrumentation. Within seconds brass and woodwind are clashing against each other like rival animals yelping from deep in the woods, yet while also being strangely and harmoniously in sync, before beautifully soft jazz drums glide in, and vibrant guitar jumps to life, before it all coalesces to create a beautifully distinct piece of prog-jazz-soul-pop. The result is like an animated blend of Nick Drake and the Canterbury scene, with an added sprinkle of California new age. It’s a buoyant opener despite the sprightly and uplifting arrangements belying lyrics that depict the hard work required in keeping the faith during dark and turbulent times – “man, it’s hard to stay alive sometimes,” says Petralli at one point, yet sounding hopeful rather than dejected.
Persistence in the face of opposition is the biggest lyrical theme throughout the album, and it’s one that’s emphasised by Petralli’s musical choices too. While he depicts struggles throughout – “tried standing up, started following down” he lets rip on the quietly rousing “Hand Giving Out” – the desire to want to overcome is very clearly reflected by the fact the song, and so much of the record, sounds so joyous, full of life, colour and momentum. It’s a mood-lifter, with the lyrical reflections and musical choices existing hand-in-hand to elevate the same point together: keep the faith, good things may be around the corner.
It helps that the band has written some of the hookiest music of their career. “Econolining” is deeply unique, littered with baroque production flourishes as it drives forward with giddy and unpredictable abandon, almost recalling The Lemon Twigs without the knowingly retro wink. “Second Dimension”, with music written by keyboardist Michael Hunter, is pure Stevie Wonder, an unashamed piece of stirring soul pop, while “I Still Exist” swings the other way on the soul pendulum to evoke and recall Marvin Gaye in its more stripped-back and slightly mournful groove. Petralli describes “Swinging Door” as the most ambitious arrangement he’s ever created: it features four drummers, as well as three bassists, all interwoven into a piece of gleaming psychedelic soul pop. It’s a beautifully layered song that feels multi-faceted yet not needlessly complex, and is a neat embodiment of a record that manages to make tiny moments feel wildly ambitious. It takes real skill to make something so dense sound as fluid as it does here.
Perhaps Petralli’s extracurricular activities have been key to some of his stylistic, and technological, choices on this record. Back in Austin, he was running his own commercial studio as a producer for hire and concluded that “in serving other people’s vision, maybe my own became a little clearer”, and then when he was in LA he worked as a guide vocalist on themini-series Daisy Jones And The Six, where he witnessed producers at Sound City fully pushing the capabilities of digital technology in the studio.
As a result, there is an unquestionable, inescapable feeling of an artist wanting to open things up. 12 is a record that feels incredibly individual, and loaded with personality, yet also enormously collaborative and generous. While Petralli has clearly taken on a complete and all-encompassing role in order to best serve this record, he’s also let many of the core band – Hunter, Cat Clemons and Matt Young – take a songwriting lead on certain tracks. Similarly, it’s not completely the end of previous members’ involvement. Founding member Steve Terebecki remains back in Texas and still contributes “as and when he pleases” and pops ups on the album, while original drummer Josh Block, who left the band back in 2015, plays on a couple of tracks and also mixed the album.
Ultimately, what has been achieved here is the very difficult task of Petralli freeing himself up to collaboration perhaps more than ever, as well as giving himself more working parts to assemble, while also meticulously shaping out a very distinct vision he has for this record. This is then something he has deftly managed to streamline into a remarkably cohesive and dynamic record that oozes flair, and feels like something of a hybrid between a solo offering and an ambitious group project. While it may escape easy categorisation, it’s unquestionably the most progressive and expansive record White Denim have made to date.
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