Music Under Fire

Division Day’s debut album Beartrap Island disorients from typical delectable indie recordings. From the opening monologue “after 13 months on Beartrap Island, I’ve learned the words to keep you down” and beyond, the grate of expectations and temperament declines. After several months of Beartrap Island on my radio, I’ve come to see a dark side of indie.

The four-man group of Seb Bailey, Rohner Segnitz, Kevin Lenhart and Ryan Wilson began working on Beartrap Island in late 2005. With nine months of work at Tiny Telephone Studio in L.A., the group meshed together their first full-length album since their inception in 2001. The result, compared to what ‘traditional’ indie appears as, jumps from a jovial art form to Beartrap Island’s enigmatic wordology.

Don’t be deceived by the absence of screaming or the threat of cutting wrists, the dark droll of Division Day rings rather routinely in their lyrics and sits quietly by in oft-repetitious guitar riffs. Not only do tracks suggest this subdued sound, such as “Catch Your Death”, but the lyrics also sing it. “We both know we’re gonna drown” from “Hurricane” and “light of the world you are not mine” from “Littleblood” are hardly lyrics typical of an upbeat album.

The vocals don’t come off as crackled or unemotional, they just don’t fly through the speakers with the kind emphasis you would have expected after such a long-awaited first album. Mid notes are calmly hit throughout BI and rarely deters. On the album’s two most singer-friendly songs, “Light Out” and “Dayenu”, the vocals vary slightly but the other surrounding songs suffer from a lack of solid vocals.

Outside of the lyrics, the indie-side of Division Day shows rather clearly through their astral rhythms. When the guitars seem to be a monotonous thread throughout the album, the drum and bass developments acutely change from song to song. “Tigers” depicts this orchestrated effort of the group by using the piano/keyboard tied into the other instruments and lyrics. The result is also Division Day’s most sound song on BI.

Only on rare occasions on BI does the group waver from their dark by mixing in high-strung guitars and hard struck drums. “Ricky” at track two and “Tap-Tap Click-Click” at track 12 switch the even-tempered album to an almost sunny shade. Even when the lyrics in these songs swing to a level not seen anywhere else on the album, they still carry the even-tempered tone of Division Day. When the instruments come across livelier, unfortunately the vocals are toned down, and vice versa. A small saving grace for this seesaw of climate changes turns out to be the drums. With a knack to chip away at the drums while Division Day runs amuck, his consistency and head-up play surely assists the overall sound of Beartrap Island.

The album cannot be labeled by a genre. Division Day dabbled with soft indie, dark pop and everything in between to create this album. The result was something less than amicable to a long-time indie fan that appeals to a conserved consistent setting. BI didn’t flow with the lyrics, the tempo or the singing. The only saving factors on this album were a few catchy songs and the invigorating drum play. BI’s best song (“Tigers”) appeared seven tracks in. Only “Light Out” at track five hinted to the possibility of the album getting better. It did, but only marginally. To gain any telling signs of improvement from this album to their next, Division Day needs to get a bit more crisp with the lyrics, explore vocal alternatives (use other members more) and define the tempo of their album better through intros to songs. After that, Division Day will show a bit more unity.