Maybe it's just the unconscious insecurities of the pop-punk years grappling with the realization that a generation wasted the better part of its youth mimicking throwaway, bubblegum bands that's led the punk underground to awkwardly embrace the prog-rock aesthetic: Over-conceptual, brain-rock sounds of everyone from The Mars Volta to Coheed and Cambria soothed a million consciences ashamed at the amount of love poured into acts like Blink 182, Sum 41 and My Chemical Romance, overcompensating for bubblegum with prog flights of fancy.

Kaddisfly's Set Sail the Prairie's another album that stands ready to help cancel out a mall-punk album or two. The band's sophomore effort screams of a band trying its darnedest to prove its intellectual mettle: Each of its 14 songs coincides with a calendar month or a solstice, while vaguely chronicling journal entries for a year-round trek across the globe. As Kaddisfly works its way through its conceptual journey, front man Christopher James Ruff weaves lyrics that struggle through metaphysical questions with all the panache you'll find in a junior-college literary magazine, as the band places a premium on creating textures through the liberal use of preamps and atmospheric noises. It's a classic example of the pop-punk to prog-punk conversion, as Sail the Prairie often sounds as if Kaddisfly's a prisoner to its own ambitions, left wandering aimlessly in search of a Holy Grail that'll bring all its high-minded efforts into focus and give this album a sense of purpose.

For all Kaddisfly's efforts, it never finds it. Left to struggle through an anemic blend of pop-punk melodies and prog-rock atmospheres, Kaddisfly alternately sounds like a go-nowhere local band inspired almost entirely by Dredg and Pink Floyd and a minor-league act fueled by a Second Stage Turbine Blade fetish. If you're charitable toward Kaddisfly, things aren't too bad: "Clouds" (September) moves from a mildly atmospheric intro to a chorus that's just a few hairs bigger and more ambitious than a pop-punk hook. "Via Rail" checks Muse's glammed-up melodies as much as prog-rock exercises, and "Clockwork" simply slaps a few extra bells and whistles in to light post-hardcore pop.

Kaddisfly's prog-punk isn't too irritating until the band starts taking itself way too seriously. It wraps Set Sail the Prairie in enough pretense to float an ELO fan club; frankly, Kaddisfly can't punch that weight. Set Sail the Prairie doesn't even hang with Coheed and Cambria. At its heart and soul, Kaddisfly is just another pop-punk act.

There's a funny thing about Freudian compensation, though. Two wrongs don't make a right, no matter what the inner workings of your brain tell you. Kaddisfly like a generation of other prog-punk wannabes, are simply compensating. Psychology can be interesting, but sure doesn't make for great listening.

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Readers' Reviews
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The reviewer of this, IMO, doesn't give credit where it's due. SSTP is, again IMO, the greatest headphones album ever made. If you like art, this is it. If not - go check out Lady Gaga

posted by Jeremy F on Mar 19, 2010

Rating:

Perfect album. Pink Floyd? Wow, get a clue bro. Spend some time LISTENING to music. Were you having gay sex while listening? I guess you were distracted and were listening to your moans, rather than this album.

posted by on Feb 07, 2008

Rating:

review is basically made up. this is not kaddisfly's sophomore album, "clouds" does not have a "semi-atmoshperic" intro ... second stage turbine blade? where is it

posted by royal on Jan 20, 2008