Album Review: Skeletons With Flesh On Them – All the Other Animals

May 4, 2010 by David Couch

Artist: Skeletons with Flesh on Them

Album: All the Other Animals

Release Date: Summer 2009 (Out Now!)

All The Other Animals is the debut full-length album from alternative rockers Skeletons With Flesh On Them. From Seattle, Washington they appear to have all the cool and laid-back attitude of the new wave Bohemia, bands like The Dandy Warhols and The Thrills spring to mind with their non-nonchalance and cool rhythms.

Self releasing this album as well as the preceding EP, The Fish Don’t Mind, the band have taken those first steps to establishing themselves in the independent music world. If I was at all sentimental I’d launch into a mindless rhetoric about the purity of independent music and how record companies are ruining the world. But as it is, they are a necessary evil to combat those people that will always want something for nothing.

My favourite tracks on the album include: “Ten Times” and “Trail of Destruction” where the percussion adds that subtle bohemian feeling I was telling you about, while the added tambourine heightens that retro feeling the Skeletons have perfected. “Take Me Down” shows the bands darker side, the slide guitar is another glimpse of skeleton without the flesh that is more psycho rock than beatnik poetry. The rolling snare and trembling vocals are trademarks on this album that give a rusty, original quality. The nostalgic air throughout the album rings true not just to us older folk, but to anyone that has ever really lived. The album has an alternating theme of light and dark songs crossing over at some points and yet at other times they stand sharply opposed.

I would recommend SWFOT’s All the Other Animals it to anyone who has a taste for alternative rock albeit with a softer edge. While at times in opposition, the album works well together with distinctive vocals which are a strong point of the band’s; but that seems a little shallow so I’ll leave you with some sage wisdom… The songs you love are too often the songs that confess the secrets you’ve never told anyone. If you think a songs speaking to you, it’s not. It’s a universal truth that exists between us all, those quiet things that no one knows. So listen, and you’ll be surprised by what you might hear.