4 out of 5

Label: Sub Pop

Produced by: Phil Ek

And LaL grew from disc to disc from sharp-edged lo-fi slop-rockers into something with more shape and definition on the aptly-named 1999 release Destination 2000.  Whatever it was that kept them from making a Seattle name for themselves, pegged somewhat as a used-to-be-in-a-group-with-other-guys namecheck, finally rattled loose on Sea to Shining Sea, delivered as a wollop of energetic intent with the same slambang zip of Zeppelin or the Stones as funneled through a modern day indie rocker.  Sam Jayne and crew had finally embraced their desire to play loud and proud, and it’s apparent as soon as the rippling opening chords and thumping beat of Coast to Coast begin.  Phil Ek’s hard-edged production style is perfect for this type of guitar overload, the same crispness he brings to Built to Spill but in better service of a band playing their instruments hard and fast, as on the bristling punkier riffs of Temptation Island, or My Case.  The album is a madly impressive showcase of toe-tapping catchiness, whether stripping away the distortion for the folky Sam Jayne = Dead or going into luscious guitar overload on the layered Druggachusetts.  Jayne’s lyrics aim for wizened musings and err, probably smartly, on the side of vagueness; they don’t really make you think save some select smart lines, but they’re also far from being so on the nose as to make you roll your eyes, so it’s a good balance to allow you to get into the jams and sing along without shame.  The first forty minutes or so of the disc is so sharp and solid – even when bloating out to seven minutes on epic ode Miss Direction – that it’s unfortunately inevitable something has to give, and it’s all toward the end of the disc.  Which is maybe good, that all the best is packaged up front, but there’s also the benefit of spreading out the average tracks so the overall listen is buoyed.  We have French Heroin, which isn’t a bad track, it just doesn’t build or grab like the others, and then the hazed out reverb of The Square, which may’ve made for a fitting closing track.  But the group wants it all, and so tries to end with another guitar epic with the ten minute+ E.H., mimicking Built to Spill’s more wandering sensibilities… which thus doesn’t jive with the otherwise up front approach of the album’s other tracks, allowing for a somewhat anti-climactic conclusion.

That’s a good 20 minutes of music which is more Okay than Great, so it says something about how good the rest of the album is that I can still feel so enthused about it.  The group would later wrangle the catchiness here into something approaching pop on their next disc, and then finally collapse into druggy jams on the disc after.  So while Sea and the followup Laughter’s Fifth are two sides of, for now, the group’s apex, if you’d like to climb the side that has louder guitars, Sea to Shining Sea is the disc for you.