The Burlington Northern takes its name from a railway line that runs from Chicago to its far western suburbs. Daily, former frontman for punk rock upstarts Not Rebecca -- and, less importantly in this context, former Smoking Popes guitarist -- rides it every day. Until recently, so did I. While I'm not going to pretend that sharing a mass transit method gives me some unique connection to Daily's psyche, I can attest to the powerful imagery the train ride provides. Warehouses and abandoned buildings give way to lonely parking lots, which eventually segue into scenes of suburban contentment. There are small but bustling town centers, brief flashes of warm light as strangers' apartments speed past, and a constant feeling of being almost, but not quite, home.
Daily seems to have pulled that vaguely displaced feeling into his music, toying with listeners' comfort levels via subtle lyrical and thematic needling. It's a step forward from last year's Happily Deceiving Culture, which sometimes seemed a little too melancholy for its own good. Here, Daily indulges in gleefully vengeful vandalism on "Your Walkman", picks naggingly at the generation gap in "The Kids are Not Alright" and mixes sex, death and big power chords on the charming "Reese Witherspoon." His high-pitched, nasal vocals slip thoughts of "going down in flames" into a cheery pop framework, and you're not sure what to think.
Daily can write a mean pop song when he puts his mind to it. You won't know whether to listen for allegorical undertones in "The Hitler of Crickets" or just crank the volume and enjoy its bell-enhanced riffs. "Allison" provides another gateway to pop nirvana, and "Oh My" gives the album sublime closure, with a weird little coda that'll satisfy even Elephant 6 fans. These are the sort of songs people babble about until you buy the album just to shut them up...and then, a few days later, you call to thank them.
Happily Deceiving Culture was a solitary effort; Daily did the whole thing himself at home on an eight-track recorder. While the recording equipment is unchanged, Daily invited a few friends to collaborate on The Burlington Northern. The additional viewpoints and skills stretch the boundaries of Daily's compositional ability and keep his sound from getting stale.
The Burlington Northern is one of those albums that constantly reshapes itself, adding new dimensions with each successive listen. Like the sequence of images seen from a moving railway car, even its most familiar moments are never the same twice. You may not like everything you see, but the more you watch, the more fascinated you'll become.
