Working to Divide Album Review

It was only November last year that I had the chance to review the band’s trippy hand drawn music video Heads & Tails, but the anticipation building around their forthcoming release Working to Divide has extended that nine months by half.

Back in April I looked over Live at Lopdell House Theatre, 2 a.m. Orchestra’s intimate live album. A collection of acoustically reinterpreted songs, new and old, Live at Lopdell, showed us just how dynamic the band really are, and gave a taste of what was to come on Working to Divide.

2 a.m. Orchestra have done well in sustaining my interest. And now they’ve sated my anticipation. 

I’ve just received word that after four long years, Working to Divide is finally finished and is slated for release next month. Better still I have in my inbox a Promo Pre-Release. I’d hate to spoil it for other people, but I have to say it is amazing. Well worth the four years of effort front man David Kelley and his co-conspirators have put into it.

Previously featured tracks from Live in Lopdell and the Fire Escape EP make an appearance, including the ever-catchy Heads & Tails and perhaps my new personal favourite, the faintly Muse-ish Six Lines of Ash. 

Staying true to form, each track has a different sound and emotion to the last, and sometimes even a different genre, though the influence of early Radiohead remains dominant. 

For example the track Unstuck sounds like something off College Pop Rock in the late 90s, the following track Have It Your Way is textbook Cobainian grunge, yet Fire Escape is a Folk Rock journey with orchestral tinges that ends with a ukelele strum. The titular last track is a nine and a half minute epic that begins as a lullaby then crosses between Acoustic Folk and Progressive Rock, not unlike any two sides of a spectrum fighting for dominance.

Despite being in constant artistic flux, the album’s flow has being carefully managed.  It ebbs and flows in a seeming natural rhythm, in no small part owing to Kelley’s fastidious eye for detail. 

A musician myself, I know how hard it is to listen to your own creations objectively after spending hours a day staring that the mixing board. With his seemingly obsessive perfectionism I’m sure David Kelley is no different, so I emplore you to try this album when it comes out. Give it a listen, and tell someone what you think of it. Drop David a line on the 2 a.m. Orchestra Facebook even. 

If you haven’t yet, check out the Sneak Peak at Working to Divide on Youtube (http://youtu.be/0HAenYamrgk).

From September 24^th Working to Divide will be available on iTunes, Amplifier and the 2 a.m. Orchestra Bandcamp (http://www.2amorchestra.com/). In a practice admonished by record labels everywhere, Working to Divide is potentially free, as the band is using Bandcamp’s “Pay what you want” option, though as a sign of support for a hard-working band that is doing this all for you, I’m sure they won’t say no to a bit of monetary encouragement and thanks.