For ten years now, Opel has demonstrated the importance of being earnest. In the face of a modern music industry too often pockmarked by pretension, the seven-piece Springfield band’s hearty, fun-loving approach to making songs remains reassuringly down-to-earth.
The band’s new full-length album Towers of Secrecy, recorded and mastered by Mark Alan Miller at Sonelab in Easthampton, is an ambitious showcase: 15 songs and more than an hour of new music. But nowhere does the new project feel spread thin. Track by track, Opel proves its range, swaggering from rockabilly tunes to electric folk licks to grungy alt-pop ballads.
No wheels require reinventing on this LP. What makes Towers of Secrecy so appealing is the combination of talented playing and what sounds, clearly, like camaraderie among bandmates. This is a group that gets each other, and even when the arrangements steer ornate, there’s nothing forced about the sound. What shines through are the simple things: straightforward but memorable melodies, lively percussion from Mark and Eric Putnam, and creative electric guitar and saxophone riffs by Eugene Fortier and Jonas Cain, respectively.
Fortier also sings, as do James Fiore on acoustic guitar and Theresa Berard on keyboard. The album boasts a few fun duets, but it’s Berard’s rich voice, reminiscent of Aimee Mann’s, that stabilizes and steers many of the album’s strongest moments.
A lengthy playtime gives the sextet time to explore. “Middleman,” the opening track, folds a few lines from Neil Young’s “Homegrown” into a sunny roadhouse rock song about escaping the tedium of paycheck life and finding time to relax. “Stand Like a Rock” skews bluesier, with Berard singing a plainspoken sort of heartbreak mingled with slippery guitar and saxophone riffs.
Some tracks, like “I Feel Your Pain,” lock into a bright and driving beat; others stroll like semi-tired walks at midnight. “The Dream” is a playful, peppy cousin to Belle and Sebastian. On the title track, which may prove to be Opel’s “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” a slinky ditty is punctured by growling minor-chord guitar beneath a build-up of thick, hazy reverb.
While the band visits a few unexpected corners, when it comes to lyrics, nuance mostly takes a backseat. When Towers of Secrecy isn’t occasionally hinting at demons, darkness, addiction, and recovery, it mostly makes mention of loners holding each other close, then falling into each other. No big surprises there. But when lyrics are voiced so reassuringly, and backed by such capable playing, there’s no need to split hairs. When added up, it’s an accomplished album by a band that, we hope, does a victory lap in the studio sometime soon.
Opel plays a record release show at Fort Hill Brewery in Easthampton on April 30 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Towers of Secrecy is available for streaming and download on Bandcamp.
– Hunter Styles, hstyles@valleyadvocate.com
