Record Review: Chris Walla - Field Manual

Rating: 4.7 / 10.0

“All hail an imminent collapse. / You can fumble for your maps, / But we’re exhausted by the facts.”

Such are the first lines on Chris Walla’s solo effort, Field Manual. Don’t say he didn’t warn you (it was too easy). This is a record that has been discussed for a long while. Expectations have percolated and in time risen to a slow boil as Walla stayed too tight lipped about the whole thing, pushed back the release date, etc. etc. Bottom line, given that Mr Walla took his sweet-ass time with this one, it should be a hell of a lot better than it is. Which is to say, it should be half-decent.

The article heretofore published on this very blog (http://neverlearned.blogspot.com/2008/01/early-word-on-field-manual.html) has proven prophetic in every aspect except one: this record does not really highlight Walla’s skill as a producer. Apparently, nobody told him that that was all he’s good at. But no, we get his (mediocre) vocals and his (mediocre) guitars overwhelming the mix. Not a good call, Mr Walla. The songs are uncreatively written, uncreatively arranged, and bland. There are no risks taken, and Walla is far from a master of convention. It is difficult to talk about specifics in a record that is so willfully superficial.

Where second track “The Score” wants to sound more like Death Cab for Cutie’s earlier work, it ends up just coming off like angry pop-rock that you would hear on the soundtrack to an extreme sports video game. The hugest problem is that Field Manual doesn’t sound like a record put out by a member of Death Cab for Cutie, it sounds like a record put out by a fifteen year-old who listens to a lot of Death Cab for Cutie…and just broke up with his first girlfriend. It’s clear that Walla spent the entire writing process asking himself, “What Would Ben Do?” Which begs the question, “Why put out a solo record at all?”

This apery is never clearer than on the ridiculous “A Bird Is A Song”, where shameless Gibbardisms – “Concrete canopy, / mountains of symmetry, / city policy / the city air,” and “a seamless operation upon ignition” – meet Gibbard-inspired harmonies, a melody supported by a sixth and an octave. “Everyone Needs A Home” sounds like another Plans b-side. Oh yeah, and “Geometry &c.” couldn’t really sound more like “Crooked Teeth” if it tried. I suppose the best b-side in the bunch is “Our Plans, Collapsing.” The unexpected, even brave, key change leading into the last verse is a breath of fresh air, and the closest Walla comes to taking a risk. If there had been more of that, the score at the top of this post would have been higher, I promise (maybe not much higher, but certainly higher).

What damns Field Manual is not that Walla rips off other bands – that I could at least understand (maybe not altogether forgive, but certainly understand), a side project is the perfect outlet for all the influences that don’t get infused into your main project’s sound. But here, Walla isn’t channeling his secret, heretofore unexpressed love for Justin Timberlake or LCD Soundsystem. His biggest influence in this Death Cab for Cutie side project is…Death Cab for Cutie. So I ask again, “Why put out a solo record at all?”



-PTC