The Angel Has Landed

It's been a long four years since San Francisco's Vaportrail released their excellent five-song self-titled EP, but their full-length debut has proven to be well worth the wait. The Angel Has Landed is a slight departure from the heavier shoegazer-influenced EP; the vibe on several tracks here is a tad more atmospheric and subdued. Roger Anderson's 'angelic' vocals enhance this change in direction perfectly; his breathtaking melodies complementing the seductive sea of sound on tunes such as the staggering ballad "Suspended" and the emotive, acoustic-based "Melt." That said, the group still knows how to kick into Ride/MBV overdrive as evidenced by the explosive guitar lines on "Eta Carina" and portions of "Dream Yourself Awake." Another huge highlight is "Europa", which brings to mind the best work of The Chameleons with its enticing spider-web guitars and Anderson's fervent vocal delivery. - Ben Vendetta

Rating: 7 out of 10
Who? San Francisco space rock trio with their debut full-length.
Sounds Like: A tuneful take on space rock that focuses more on songcraft and drama than on freaky effects.
How is it? Somewhat derivative of early-'90s shoegazer rock, but the band's memorable melodies and blissful guitar and vocals save the disc from being mere homage.
Kindred spirits: Ride, Dandy Warhols, Red House Painters

Vaportrail's brand of space rock is a fairly unique beast. This is the stuff of floating; perhaps it's even what the astronaut would have piped into his helmet as he dreamily bounced around the outside of a space station, tethered to civilization by a thin safety line. "Suspended" is a particularly relaxing dreamscape in this vein. "Dream Yourself Awake" is almost like a creative visualization exercise, in which the vocalist places you in a gentle space-scape. There are a few noisier moments on the album - "Europa" and the opening to "Eta Carina", for example - but what this band does best is enable the listener to drift off into the space of reverie and quietude.

Although it's a fact rarely acknowledged, some albums don't even have to be listened to in order to hear the music on them. Though it's certainly not a hard and fast rule, it holds true far more often than it should, as certain albums just look the way they sound. Judging by the name of the band, the fanciful title, and the cosmic debris cover art, plus the fact that the running time is just under 45 minutes with only eight songs, this album seemed to scream "space rock!" And for many of us, that serves as a warning to run as far away as possible in the other direction. Thankfully, though, San Francisco's Vaportrail emerge from The Angel Has Landed with more than a little galactic dust on the amps; this is not the standard space rock or even an experimental rock album. What it is, however, is a purely modern amalgamation of early 90's Brit-rock, shoegazer pop, and good ol' American indie rock. And for the most part, it's pretty good. From the soft tinkling of two guitars - one electric, one acoustic - over purring keyboards of the opening "Finders Keepers," the overall effect is reminiscent of a somewhat less dramatic Mercury Rev, but with naked sentiment presented without the strange otherness. Restrained in a pristine textural clarity, soon muddied by churning guitar feedback, the song sets the pace for the album's following excursions through soft sincere acoustic pop to floating guitar sparkle. It doesn't take long to see that the theme is pure escapism. Lead vocalist Roger Anderson has just a little of the Cure's Robert Smith in his voice, helping sentiments like "safely suspend me from your open sky" not dissolve into over-earnestness. Further, when Anderson beckons the listener to "come live in my lucid dream" over a simple acoustic guitar, you might not be inspired to jump on the next plane to San Francisco, but you might be induced to take a mid-day nap. When moving away from the dreamy pop textures into more abrasively soothing textures, Vaportrail still manages to carve out moments of gorgeous stillness. Like Yo La Tengo drained of their dissonance or a less drone-happy Galaxie 500, Vaportrail attacks guitar histrionics from the angle of the great Brit-pop bands of the early 90's. And while they still occasionally burrow in the same direction for a little too long, the big open structures they construct allow them free reign to stretch out into just about any direction they choose. The swirling scrambled masses of guitar feedback of "Dream Yourself Awake" bring to mind the salad days of Oasis, though the more shimmering sonic textures of "Eta Carina" find common ground with more recent converts like Doves. Often, Vaportrail finds just a little chilly guitar rock that Radiohead perfected on pre-OK Computer releases before actually blasting off into the cosmos, with Anderson scratching out a few Jonny Greenwood-worthy guitar solos and the element of angst and paranoia being pleasantly absent. Of course, that makes the whole album feel a little emotionally neutral, but their whole modus operandi appears to be escapism more than existential disillusionment. In the end, a certain amount of hazy innocence works to their advantage. So, even though an examination of the Vaportrail album cover from a deaf detective would result in a report that would be correct to a certain extent, you'd still miss hitting the totality of the album by quite a lot. Their balance of acoustic ethereal jangle pop with hanging skyscraper guitar skronk may not be entirely unique, but few artists have ever done as well by simply splitting an album between the two ideas. Overall, they may spend time staring into the night sky, but their sound isn't aspiring to break from the earth's orbit quite yet.

If you still pine for new music from the likes of ride, swervedriver, drop 19s, et al, or looking for a soundtrack for some bedroom ceiling gazing, this album should definitely fill that musical void in your life. Like the best of those early 90s bands, there's much more to vaportrail than dreamy guitar anthems. When they slow things down on several acoustic songs, it's clear that they have the songs and variety to be a potentially great band on their own terms. On tracks like "Melt" and "Rest in peace" they show that their songs are good enough to stand out barred from the guitar noise and just stripped to acoustic guitar, vocals and some Casio SK-1 samples.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! Utterly gorgeous debut album - much long awaited by the masses - from this SF Bay-area outfit. Understated melancholic atmospheres of pop songs fill the 43-plus minutes of this disc from start to finish. The Red House Painters and Ride comparisons are rather old by this point, as Vaportrail takes a direction all their own, leaving the listener breathless in their wake. Roger's vocals are angelic and perfect atop the dreamy mix of guitars, percussion and keyboards. Beautifully eerie artwork is just the icing on the cake. big kudos, Vaportrail!

After several years spent breaking apart and reconfiguring its lineup but generating precious little music, Vaportrail returned to the trio that originally formed the band in the mid 1990s and finally recorded its full-length follow-up to the spacey 1998 EP. It is every bit as wonderfully transporting. If the expansion of running time does manage to dilute by the slightest degree the concentrated sonic impact of the EP, it is all the better for its more intricately spun and involving emotional world. The Angel Has Landed unfolds layer upon layer of soft, amniotic sound until dream-like songs gradually emerge out a murky latticework with crystal clarity. In many ways, the band took the unlisted song ("Wallflower") from Vaportrail e.p. as the jumping off point for this album's eight wondrous gems. Although the trio is more than capable of turning up the amps and creating heavy feedback-imbued textures ("Eta Carina" and "Europa," as examples), there is a tenderness to much of the album that creates a world in gingerly expressed tones. That world, however, is still frequently shot through with tendrils of agitated electric guitar to ensure that the music isn't mere naval-gazing soup. Even many of the acoustic-based soundscapes have a real and sparkling current running beneath them, transforming what, in the wrong hands, could seem severely sluggish and slow-footed into music of sublimity and bliss. A heartrending cello line, for instance, haunts "Suspended" and literally gives the sense of something unbearably sad transpiring beneath the surface of the music. At other times, Vaportrail strips a song ("Melt," "Waiting to Connect") down to its framework and creates a stunning ambience of open space that still manages to sound like a complete universe being explored or undertaken. This is space rock of the most wistful, introspective and gorgeous kind, with songs that deserve their surrounding beauty.

Vaportrail is but one of those precocious bands waiting to be heard by the masses. If the elusive name has curioused any attention, it is perchance it sounds too similar to Ride's 1990 hit of the same title (except the Anglo spelling). It is indeed a name the San Franciscans derived from the defunct English outfit, more often than not with gentle remnants of their music. A title that might come across as hackneyed and maybe even narcissistic but given the band's ethereal and dreamy (and dissonant at times) euphony and singer/songwriter Roger Anderson's plaintive words and voice, this could be the most honest title any band has selected in recent years. For lack of a better adjective, breathless would be the next best word to describe this album. Sentiently crafted between a dirge and paean, "Dream Yourself Awake" takes one on a journey of magical reverie and soul-levitation with its poignant guitars and echoey drums. The first two minute is an instrumental ode to impossible dreams before Roger gently enraptures with a repetitive line and it is forgivable if the listener falls prey to the notion that the Angel has indeed landed. All belief is broken as the other half of the song sees the band picking up a less simple drum beat powered by slow flooding discordance and at the end of the nearly ten-minute track, one is allowed to feel emotionally entangled yet somehow, released. "Melt" is a no less heart warming. The sound of the acoustic guitar, accompanied by an oddly embraced ambience and dismal vocals of comfort, again charms. Soft crescendo builds up when a delayed guitar line is played incessantly as the song comes to a close. A melancholy tune it is but not without its relish. Crunchy distortion rips through and the words "like cities and stars" resound on "Eta Carina". It is by far the only track that sees the band shoegaze in Adorable style. One jumps, one plays air-guitar and cannot help but ponder. Ponder about personal issues, personal references, personal moments. To say Vaportrail could salvage the lack of honest music would be a tag too gargantuan for them to shoulder and it is no easy feat for an upcoming band to profess "The Angel Has Landed" but in this case, the suggestion might be more than a figurative one. - Henry Ng