JULY 2008 ONLINE EDITORIALS

Slim Cessna’s Auto Club - Cipher

By Nathan Harper

The tortured spirituality that makes up most of the lyrical grist on Cipher, the latest record from Denver country/revival-tent rockers Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, could be a weak point if the group didn’t sell their simultaneous consternation and admiration for Christ so believably. In the gamut of religious themed rock, pitting the monomaniac love of Christian music on one side and the often cartoonishly dark hate of metal on the other, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club occupy the middle as a betrayed group of adolescents who on some level still want to believe. A certain anger is there, a jaded counter punch to the perceived big-smiles-and-happy-lives message of the church, and for proof against these assertions they offer their own life experiences. Refreshingly, when the band does lighten up, they do so by taking advantage of the trappings of their genre – there’s yodelesque bellowing, a few numbers that would work well at a hoedown and in-jokes about band relationships that all play well.

Musically the record’s electric/acoustic mix finds all involved in top form. SCAC are masters of both controlled, tightly executed numbers as well as big, open, feedback laden rockers that feel wild even with studio production. Slim and Munly again vie for the vocal spotlight as the Slim’s semi-shticky high voiced preacher-man contrasts nicely with the bass of Munly, he of the sunken cheeks and deep-set eyes. Live is undoubtedly the best way to experience the energy of the Auto Club, but Cipher does a fine job of bringing their conflicted, and occasionally sunny, souls home.