by David Wilikofsky
Originally the solo project of Dan Shaw, a landscape architect based in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Landowner has grown over the years into a five piece band. Their last album, Blatant, was a personal favorite of the past few years, but with their latest, Consultant, the band have hit a new high water mark. It’s an album that feels at once timely and timeless, engaging with many of the ills in the world against the backdrop of their brand of nervy punk.
Landowner creates twitchy, angular punk music across Consultant. Their aesthetic is minimalist; songs are largely constructed out of small, repeated musical phrases. There’s a precision and geometry to the way their songs fit together; the closest comparison would be to Minutemen, but there’s much more of an abrasive, no wave edge to Landowner’s music. The band is incredibly tight throughout, making hairpin turns left and right. Shaw’s vocals are a sharp contrast to the instrumentals, chaotic where the instrumentals feel controlled. He twists and contorts his voice, giving a sharp yelp one minute and a gruff whisper the next. It’s a virtuoso performance that never ceases to surprise.
Landowner’s songs explore the corruption and power structures of everyday life. Perhaps no song better encapsulates this than album centerpiece “Mystery Solved”. Across seven minutes, images of the forces that shape our world flicker past. Shadowy business dealings are sealed with a handshake behind closed doors. Chemicals are sprayed whose deleterious effects are only discovered years later. The Earth is polluted by corporate interests, yet they get no comeuppance; in the end, they are “too big to fail”. We’re both victim and participant; “Ever since the stunning revelation that the much superior power of your shopping habits / has counteracted any progress you had made / on the burning issues you believe in / sarcasm is all that’s left” Shaw sings on “This Could Mean Something”. Elsewhere the band explore and skewer generational wealth, data collection, and other modern ills. It’s the sound of a band trying to process and interrogate both the world around them and their place in it.
The word process feels key here. This doesn’t feel like music that’s trying to push any particular agenda; there’s just a lot of fucked up stuff in the world, and Consultant is the sound of a band reflecting on the effects of some of those things. Sometimes it’s funny and other times it’s sad, but it’s also never anything less than thrilling (both musically and lyrically). Landowner have recorded an extremely enjoyable rock album that will force you to think critically about society and the world around you. In this era where complacency is not an option, what’s more important than that?