3 out of 5

Label: Party Damage, Discolexique 

Producer: Joe Haege

I went back and relistened to the previous Vin Blanc record to make sure: that this is a fairly different beast.  For all of the openness and contemplation of the first album, ‘In Every Way But One’ is beats and winks, matching the slicker looking front cover of a smiling Haege vs. the sloppy MS Paint looking hash of ‘Chroma Key.’  Interestingly, though, the overall result of the album flips the concept: though ‘Chroma’ was, I believe, a between-tour exploration, it felt fully realized and necessary, a way for Joe to express ideas that didn’t quite match his current 31knots setup.  ‘In Every Way,’ on the other hand, is very sketchy, tracks centering mainly on one beat and generally straight forward lyrics, some songs opting for a fade out or sudden stop after a verse and a minor detour.  The first half of the album is also much more yelly than ‘Key,’ which matches it with ‘Trump Harm’s somewhat one note tone.  Both discs share the same cavernous recording, with the electronic beats heavy, heavy in the mix, but there’s just not a sense of build to most of the songs here; Joe’s writing style, to me, works best when he ‘earns’ his moments to freak out, and that does happen in spots – ‘I’m Here’ almost harkens back to ‘A Word is Only…’ style, starting from a bare minimum and building to devastating heights, given a distinct flavor by a looseness in its guitar work that would never have found its way into Knots.  But elsewhere we get pummeled with that electro thump and that distinct indirect Haege guitar riff for three minutes or so, battling for ear space with a poppy utterance of lyrics that include unfortunate phrases like ‘mad real’ or calling someone a ‘fucking idiot’ – ‘Make Do,’ ‘Ease Up!!,’ ‘Enable’ – catchy songs with some fascinating nuances sprinkled throughout, just, again, a bit less conceptually developed than we’re use to, which makes the disc feel unfinished at points.  Except, oddly (or not), during the song that seems to be a single (as it has a video), ‘Losing Sweet Permission’, which is one of the most effective songs Haege has written under any moniker, and sounds unlike anything else on the disc.

But such judgments are the price for having set a consistently high bar, and admittedly, the more I listen to the album, the more I warm to it and appreciate the subtle steps out of character it makes.  Whatever it’s an expression of for Joe – if Vin Blanc is now a full ‘project’ or still something on the side for working out un-Knotsy ghosts – I’m happy that it exists and not at all disappointed in having excitedly plunked down dollars for the download.

Side note: I variously owned this digitally, on CD, and on vinyl, and vinyl is my preference. This was a very solo, digital affair, and so it initially felt like digital and disc were appropriate – and the album sounds great that way – but the vinyl master allowed for some layers to peek through and better balanced an arguably over-favored low-end.