Tax the Wolf, Hold the Sun

What is it that makes Tax the Wolf a man among boys, yet still so youthfully refreshing? They’ve been compared to early Radiohead and Mars Volta. They’ve been called progressive, indie, and all manner in between, but you know what I say to that? I say poppycock! Poppycock. And now Tax the Wolf gets the distinctive honor of being the first review where I’ve used the word “poppycock” in print a record three times.

When I listen to their latest album, Hold the Sun, I don’t hear a group of guys trying to sound like this band or that, or trying to be inventive or interesting, or trying to be progressive or indie. I just hear a group of dudes coming together to play music, and what comes out of it is just what personally appeals to them. So, if that means that they’re going to throw a trumpet on a track, or that this song will be an instrumental, or that this song will be sung in Spanish, so be it. If it means that you can dance to it, relax to it, fight to it, or imagine it on the ending credits of a Twilight movie, so be it. This is the most organic, least pretentious album from a “progressive” band I’ve heard in ages.

I’ll admit, I was slow to come around to the Tax the Wolf bandwagon. I’d been hearing about them for a while, been to a few packed shows of theirs, but I’ll admit I didn’t get it. Then, after happening to see them live yet again by accident, I was taken by the effortless simplicity of what they were doing. It felt a little soulful and pure, if I can romanticize for a bit. Sure, I may’ve been a little drunk at that show and feeling sentimental, but it didn’t change the fact that finally my eyes were open.

So to any other holdouts who might not yet be on the Tax the Wolf bandwagon and continue to hate just for hate’s sake, keep listening to these dudes. They’re like beer — it may take a while, but once you love the taste of beer, you can’t even remember what it tasted like when you didn’t.