If you’re a neo-classic rock group, you’re duty-bound to attempt a double album at some point. The follow-up to the TREAT‘s remarkable sophomore effort Phonography, Audio Verité/Deceptive Blends essentially combines its third and fourth LPs into one package. Though divided into four parts – “Side Rock,” “Side Acoustic,” “Side Electric,” “Side Experiment” – in truth the album mixes and matches as it sees fit, with a stronger folk rock element than in records past. That’s not saying much, though – MICHAEL HYDER and his troop always make a virtue of eclecticism, and this record is no different. As before, the band casually masters heavy grunge (“Massive Attack”), whimsical folk (“By the Sea”), moody psychedelia (“Silent Voices”), rockin’ pop (“This is the One”), groovy blues-rock (“Farmer Jack’s Tree”) and mixtures of all of the above (“Citizen of the World”). Unsurprisingly for an album this jam-packed, the tunestack could’ve been trimmed a bit (the jammy folk-pop cut “Fan the Flames” starts to irritate fairly quickly and “Little Fly” proves that no one needs to emulate JANDEK), but overall AV/DB is an explosion of talent.
