[The] Caseworker – Letters From The Coast

Caseworker – Letters From The Coast”]They aren’t exactly mysterious, [The] Caseworker, they just spread themselves around a lot. With band members variously inhabiting San Francisco, Switzerland and rural England, they seem less of an actual band and more of an association bound only by their musicality. The twelve tracks on Letters From The Coast aren’t obviously the result of pro-tool assisted file sharing, quite the opposite as you may hear, and there are definitely more than two members. Conor and Eimer Devlin are, to all intents and purposes, the prime motivators of the band and this is their fourth album, including the East Of Sunset collection of Tom Waits covers they produced in 2004, and if there’s one artiste whose work I can’t quite envisage [The] Caseworker interpreting, that is indeed the composer of “Heart Attack And Vine” and “Frank’s Wild Years”. Waits’ nicotine drawled jazz storytelling seems almost the antithesis of what [The] Caseworker are presenting on their newest release, and is Will Waghorn actually their full time drummer (he isn’t credited on this album)? Curiouser and, as they say, curiouser.

So if you are both sufficiently interested in what [The] Caseworker are doing now and are expecting a jazzpunk speedthrash interspersed with quotes from Bukowski and Henry Miller, then Letters From The Coast probably isn’t the album you need to hear. What it is, is a mellow, blissed out sequence of West Coast guitar pop, one that references Green On Red and Teenage Fanclub as much as it does the more abrasive Sonic Youth and monochromatic Velvet Underground whom [The] Caseworker acknowledge as influences. Alex Chilton casts his lengthy shadow over the songs here too, and there are inflections in the songwriting that reveal Post Punk influences such as Wire and Television Personalities. After all this, while you might think [The] Caseworker haven’t left any room for their own songwriting, they are significantly more than the sum of their influences and Letters From The Coast is a sun drenched dream haze of verging upon euphoric blissed out jangle pop.

Conor Devlin’s guitars strike exactly the right notes of subtlety and power, and Eimer’s bass provides a sinuously melodic accompaniment to the songs. There’s also a lyrical adeptness at work in the songwriting and some inventive (although uncredited) drumming. Starting with “National Runner”there’s an insistency to everything [The] Caseworker deliver, even in their more reflective moments. “The Slow Track” contains a perceptible tension under its laid back exterior, while the guitar histrionics of “Hogsback” bring darker textures to the glimmering intensities of the Devlin’s musicianship. The album’s midpoint, “Sea Coast”, develops its staccato rhythm into a churning soundscape that’s as evocative of the ocean as it is of mid 80s indie and the earlier work of the Velvets. “Dormer” verges upon spectacular, an endless desert road journey interspersed with some shattering percussion, and the bluesy grind of “The Country Wrote A Lullaby” is perhaps a clue as to how [The] Caseworker performed those Tom Waits covers.

Without leaning too heavily on foot pedals and production, and utilising some highly defined instrumental dynamics, Letters From The Coast has as much resonance and melodic energy as any of the bands and musicians whose work [The] Caseworker draw their influence from, and it succeeds fully as a complete album. Conor Devlin’s guitar playing can stand alongside that of Frank Black and Graham Coxon, also that of Ian McCulloch in its structured and sustained composition, making every note count and blending the country rock vibes and swirling powerchordage into new and kaliedoscopic shapes. Anyone whose album colllection is incomplete without Ocean Rain, Grand Prix and Park Life will find an equally prominent space in it for this twelve track masterpiece.