Album review: Decent Criminal – “There’s More To It Than Climbing”

Diissed Records – 19 May 2023

2023: A Genre Bending Space Odyssey

There’s just something different about Northern California’s Decent Criminal. They’ve toured with a lot of my favorite punk bands while sounding absolutely nothing like them yet still seem to fit right in, a feat I find refreshing. I was a big fan of their debut album, Bloom (Dodgeball Records) and equally infatuated with the 2019 follow up Bliss (Wiretap Records) but their latest release, There’s More To It Than Climbing, stands out as possibly a defining moment for the band.

Does it mark a shift in their approach to songwriting or just a slight tweaking of their overall sound? I suppose that’s up to them to decide but I wouldn’t be surprised to find that they were poised to pave a new path for themselves as proud products of the 90’s. Now that’s certainly an assumption on my part but their sonic influences seem to speak for themselves though I can still easily draw parallels to more current performers as well. They may have ditched their darker, more overdriven alternative side in lieu of aligning with their softer, more experimental side at times on the record but other times, at their core, still hold on to their humble beginnings. It’s like they shattered their outer shells and shed their second skin, they may be dressed a little differently but they’re still the same on the inside. Lucky for the listener Decent Criminal seem to ease you into the transition over the duration of their third full length.

It’s fitting that the first song and single on the album is “Driving” because it feels like that’s exactly what I wanna do while listening to the latest offering from the Santa Rosa sensations. It starts off strong, like any good road trip, feeling quite familiar and they’re sounding like themselves. There’s a noticeable vocal contrast between soft spoken and harmonic howling with a little high pitch humming thrown in for good measure, and the tones within the instrumentation have a wide dynamic range as well. Heavy distortion and string contortion, quintessential Decent Criminal. They continue on in a similar vein on “Soothe” with a little falsetto thrown in for good measure, which has a Silversun Pickups “Lazy Eye” kinda vibe. Drenched in distorted ambient background noise like a space echo sorta sound it ebbs and flows from intense to restrained, just as it does in “Blind” with it’s high pitched “ooohs” which have become a staple in their sound and reminds me of Daytona Beach, FL’s Virginity with a little musical mayhem and demonic distortion, a dissonant sounding breakdown, and screeching strings yet there’s still an eloquence that’s exemplary of their overall outlook ending with an allusion to the alternative sounds on the record in the outro.

That being said, there are many facets to the album and it’s not all mid tempo grunge punk anthems. The band starts to show their hand on songs like “Same” with a funky bass groove almost a little like Fun Loving Criminals with a drum looped interlude feel to it, a little blues lick and a repetitive chorus. The only thing missing was a scratched sample on a turntable. It takes me back to simpler times. There’s more digital drum sounds on “You Dog” and I can smell the sea foam among the clean guitars and doo-wop backdrop, with vocals soaked in reverb and delivered in a staccato, start and stop style. Reminds me of Micah Schnabel’s “Not The Boy You Used To Know,” which sort of sums up my sentiments on the record as a whole. It’s a departure from previous works in some ways while still not entirely a reboot. Fade to black… 

They’re still on an experimental slant on songs like “Wanna Be” and “Hold Me Down,” the band’s latest single where each instrument disappears one by one on the way out, complete with the clap track of applause from the studio audience. Samples? Check. Vibrato? You got it. Love songs. The box has been ticked. Strings dance along with the vocal melody at times. It’s sickeningly sweet. If you wear your heart on your sleeve, this one’s for you. The slow descent into their down tempo artistic direction with simple melodies makes bands like Spanish Love Songs and The Flaming Lips come to mind but they bridge the gap on songs like “Time” with a subtle droning that drags the song alongside pleasingly repetitive 16th root notes on bass and, juxtaposed with the intermittent notes played on the high hats, gives the rhythm section an added layer of artistry within the simplicity. Possible Portishead stans? Maybe but it seems to land somewhere between dream pop and trip hop but then, as if the fog lifts over San Francisco Bay, they’re back to what I’m used to on “Each Time,” with feedback and simple strumming amidst mid tempo chord progressions and harmonies a wee bit like Pinkerton era Weezer with the silky smooth backing vocals that get slathered all over the record are once again apparent, it’s enough to make you swoon. In the end, they paddle back to shore on “Outside,” a short and sweet sip of seafoam and subtlety. Elliot Smith anyone? 

I’ll be honest, I’ve become accustomed to the already diverse Alt-Surf-Post-Pop-Grunge-Punk direction the band encapsulated in their early career, but I’m pleased see them staring at their shoelaces and dipping their toes into the slight synth pop and funk sounds they delivered on There’s More To It Than Climbing. Vocal melodies and harmonies intermingle in so many ways. The drums, at times, have a mechanical maliability to them as if Blur lugged an 808 into the studio. I Imagine the pedalboards in front of this creative group of stringsmiths as being nothing short of massive and the textures created with the tools in their technologically advanced tool box makes this not only their most musically diverse record but also their most experimental project to date but there’s more to it than genre bending. I find a sincerity in their approach to songwriting while sounding like everything and nothing you’ve heard before all at the same time.

Overall, by my crude calculations, Decent Criminal are a band that’s becoming increasingly more radio friendly and I don’t say that as a slight or in a bad way nor to insinuate anything against their previous contributions, it’s just another side of the sonic coin as if they aim to showcase their eclectic musical tastes and influences while staying true to themselves and making incredible music. They still sound like the old dogs they used to be but they’re still learning new tricks and refuse to play the same old shit. I salute them for taking such a stance!