4 out of 5

Label: Good Records

Produced by: Philip E. Karnats

A tip for future band-namers: for web search purposes, try to avoid using ‘preteen’ in your title.

Anyhow.

I’ve been following Tim Delaughter for many years. I joined the Tripping Daisy team with I Got a Girl, and remained dedicated thereafter. When TD kinda morphed into Polyphonic Spree, I was intrigued… and continued to follow, though more absently. I have less patience for the hippy-dippy side of that band, but I have also enjoyed seeing Tim bring some darkness and rock back into the mix. Ultimately, though, my issue with Spree, even if they very, very often sound like late Tripping Daisy, is that songs will always have to come back around to the group chorus aspect, which is something of a shtick. To my ears, it’s limiting.

I waited for Polyphonic to morph again; to Tim’s / the group’s credits, they’ve found ways to revitalize, though I’m stuck with the same overall opinion. Instead, Delaughter would focus on a stripped down effort – Preteen Zenith, with him solo writing and doing much instrumentation and backed up by Philip Karnats on percussion. And: yes – this is that next step. And even though I suppose it may (for now) only have been a sidestep, I’m so glad Tim took the time for a more focused outlet for his thoughts, that carries the same Polyphonic positivity and hope, but also embraces the alt-rock vibes (in music, and some of the lyrical urgency) of his former band.

The template here is established across the first couple tracks. Opener Breathe features muppet-pitched vocals across a squiggly, psychedelic background; it’s airy enough to be Spree, but also too weird. When the beat kicks in and the vocals turn normal, it’s closer to Daisy but more personal. This is all enough to merit a new band name, but maybe not enough to hang an album on. Thankfully – this is just the intro, and maybe a purposefully tempered lead-in. With followup Relief, Rubble Guts And BB Eye takes off, letting Delaughter sail across the bittersweet pushes and pulls of life – definitely a theme – while the music hits on Fragile Army-esque riffs that are heavier because it’s close of synergy between Tim and Philip. It’s a song to be stuck in your head for days. That said, it’s more the net balance of these tracks that plays out: nothing that follows is quite as twee or quite as loud, but that midpoint becomes the Preteen sound

Overall, a concise use of kitchen sink clatter and lo-fi digital elements throughout put us musically somewhere between Atom Bomb and Daisy’s last album, and guest vocals from Erykah Badu might have you raising a skeptical eyebrow, but her contribution is gorgeously applied in a most subtle, but effective fashion. This is the distinction I’ll keep repeating: Zenith is a more intimate version of Delaughter’s styles, and that gives it some much desired immediacy. Lyrically this comes through in fleeting bursts, but most affectingly on closer Late, where Tim praises the ability to keep going. It’s a subtle tweak on “keep trying,” and much more emotive: that you will fail; that the world will oppress, and it’s not even that you “should” respond – just that you do, as the natural state of things.

There’s something very sad but accepting about that that makes me wonder if there was some specific genesis for this release, and I only wish the album was just a tad more bold in making that point; it feels kind of vague until the conclusion gives it shape.

Regardless, I’m so happy to listen to this, as Daisy is very important to me, and in theory so is Spree, but I am not as aligned with their performative aspect. Preteen Zenith advances the Delaughter musical legacy without excluding Polyphonic, and gives a glimpse into the more personal musical mindspace of all of this stuff’s creative force.