Meridene didn’t set out to write an album about the pressures and paranoia Americans face during economic and cultural turmoil in the early stages of the 21st Century. Instead, they focused on writing an album to build upon their 2008 debut, You’re Not Pretty, You’re Worse which featured the punchy rock anthems and hard-hitting hooks that earned Meridene praise from college radio stations across the country. Their sophomore full-length album, titled Something Like Blood, solidifies the Eau Claire, WI four-piece as a dual threat by embodying both lyrically focused themes of fear and doubt, and a band realizing its full potential.
Something Like Blood was recorded over four intense days at the home-studio of Bon Iver, April Base, in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Meridene also found support from fellow local musicians. The album was produced and mixed by Brian Moen (Peter Wolf Crier) with T.W. Walsh (formerly of Pedro The Lion and The Soft Drugs) mastering.
At their highest level of energy the songs attack with layers of charging guitars, sprawling keys and high-intensity percussion, while front man Trevor Ives soars over it all with warnings about trust and inevitable oncoming loss. The opening track, “Everyone’s Waiting,” is a lively, forward marching hit in which he declares that he’s “not surprised to see we’re settling on a modest wage, a modest life.” Bright and charming as it seems on the surface, the quick-paced, poppy song, “Gone, Baby Gone” is brought back to a harsh reality by a familiar story of a family losing its home in Gone With The Wind-like fashion. Building into chorus, amongst a blazing, rollicky dance beat and a lightly pumping bass guitar, Ives heeds, “Now the dogs of war are barking out and shattering the peace.” It’s a heavy line to be surrounded by such a charming verse of sounds. “…And we must put them down if ever we want to get some sleep.”
Although Meridene has brandished a tight pop-rock sound, the songs that make up Something Like Blood aren’t all sprints; some find their stride at slower speeds and impress with well-developed songwriting and organization. The album’s title track is a moody, down tempo stretch of song that forgoes the typical comfort of a chorus and nudges listeners into a sun-splashed ending, melting a trio of shoegazey guitars with a flowing bass line and a jazzy drum beat. Guitars lightly strum on the back porch ballad, “Bible Belt,” in which Ives explores a nervousness he’s felt toward religion since his youth. It’s not surprising to hear Meridene pump out energetic hit after energetic hit, it has wielded that power of song before, but tracks like these showcase an impressive newfound maturity. This is the sound of a band that has realized the responsibility that comes with such a power.
