You Can Take It With You

Though commonly associated with emo, Long Island, New York's As Tall As Lions always stood apart. They never sounded like the bands with whom they shared stages, and they never fit the stereotypical Long Island sound. While their peers found inspiration in '90s alternative bands, ATAL fashioned their music from a pastiche of influences spanning decades, from Miles Davis to Motown to My Bloody Valentine. The band's 2006 self-titled full-length displayed their fondness for a bygone era when musical freedom trumped financial aspiration.



You Can't Take It With You maximizes all of its predecessor's strengths and further removes the band from the emo milieu. These songs ooze soul, R&B and progressive rock. Dan Nigro sings with all the heart-on-his-sleeve yearning of a young Al Green, while his band issue repetitive melodies and beats like a Stax Records version of Can. Some of the material is more traditionally pop minded, such as "Is This Tomorrow?" or "In Case Of Rapture." Yet the band defy pat categorization with the Middle Eastern-tinged title song, which makes this album the first in a number of years to use a nay on recording and be reviewed by AP. It's dizzyingly brilliant, and evidence of how tall these Lions have grown.

Triple Crown http://www.triplecrownrecords.com