Singer Erik Corveaux starts the Bad Off’s new four-song Twilight
in Eclipse with a “Yeah, that’s right!” Then the rock kicks in. Despite
the stop-start Talking Heads bassline of “You See All This Light,” it’s
undoubtedly rock. Within the first verse, Corveaux’s telling you “how
[he likes] it,” which is “straight in.” He then cockily requests
you “C’mere!” Undoubtedly rock. But there’s also subtlety;
almost hidden beneath the rock, non-typical chord harmonies and quiet vocal overdubs
mix with touches of cello, acoustic guitar and Rhodes electric piano by Rock
City Morgue’s Sean Yseult. Where a big guitar solo might seem fitting,
Johnny Foran usually chooses feedback or an echoing breakdown. When a guitar
solo is called for, as in “I Know the Road,” it’s more the
Afghan Whigs variety, riding comfortably within the mix, and featuring less notes
bent in more interesting ways. While most of Twilight’s songs consist of
two main parts, “Pearl Cool Light” shows the band’s enjoying
the writing process, with smooth interesting transitions from fast and heavy
to slithery slow, then an elegant change into what sounds like a different,
more earnest slow song.

But all this rock maturity doesn’t stop the Bad Off from also sounding
like the Cult. And no one who saw them perform in bellbottoms and wigs at last
year’s Halloween Masked Ball will ever be able to divorce them from Led
Zeppelin, whose big solid drum groove Jody Smith happily utilizes as part of
his broader rock repertoire. Like Robert Plant, Corveaux generally doesn’t
compartmentalize his syllables, mostly singing around the groove, in and out—that’s
how he likes it! You can also tell Corveaux’s an honest-to-god singer,
but on Twilight in Eclipse he very rarely busts out and wails. He more often
sounds like the singer from the band Jet, unfortunately truncating his words
with a pouty grunt or some other slightly affected rock ‘n’ roll
thing. Twilight in Eclispe could also be criticized for lacking any immediate
hooks—though this might also be what keeps them from crossing the line
into rock cliché. After an initial listen to Twilight in Eclipse, I couldn’t
remember much about what I’d just heard, just that I wanted to play it
again and remember, and that I need to go see them live.