Record review: Head of Femur, "Great Plains"

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By L. KENT WOLGAMOTT / GZO

4 stars

“Great Plains” is the best record yet from Head of Femur.

The transplanted Nebraskans turned Chicagoans who make up the core of the sprawling left-of-center pop band have tightened up their sometimes over-stuffed sound without sacrificing the “where did that come from?” oddness that has been at the heart of their sound since they were playing in Lincoln as members of Pablo’s Triangle.

The title of the disc says much of what it is about — a record from the Midwest, about the Midwest and its people that convincingly confirms that there’s more going on in flyover country than farming and dull drives on long stretches of highway.

You don’t have to listen long to get the sense of place. “Whirlaway,” the inviting first track, opens with crickets chirping, and song number two, “Leader and the Falcon,” drops a reference to “country school.” We get that here, but I’m guessing there are some urban listeners who won’t have a clue what Mike Elsener is singing about.

Song three, “Jetway Junior,” is the catchiest tune on the record, a bouncy piece of pure pop.

But it’s hard to pick out a best song. The delicate “Covered Wagons” blends strings and piano with images melding from parties to country roads to community, and “Climbing Up Fire Escapes” blisses out on guitars, a little violin and piano and some rapid-fire drumming from Colby Starck, another of the Nebraska boys.

The songs on “Great Plains” flow easily into each other, a must for what is essentially a “concept album,” if that old term still means anything in this download/singles era.

The lyrics can be introspective, overarching or funny or all of the above, as in  “you’ve got to remember to laugh when you can’t pay your rent,” a phrase from the gently flowing “The Message.”

And the horns that pop up on songs like “Where’s the Fire” and the banjo that turns up in the swinging “Open the Door, Lucille” somehow feel just right — a sign that Head of Femur is operating at the peak of its form across the impressive disc.

Head of Femur will perform Monday night at Box Awesome. A Chicago Sun Times piece about “Great Plains” and a performance there found the band playing the entire album in order. Few discs really deserve that kind of live treatment. “Great Plains” is one of them.