Artist The Celebrated Workingman

No one will ever accuse The Celebrated Workingman of not wearing its heart on its sleeve. On the Milwaukee group’s breakout 2008 debut, Herald The Dickens, singer-songwriter Mark Waldoch and company dialed up the melodrama for a frantic, sometimes exhausting exercise in bombastic indie rock. Three years later, Waldoch is back with a reconfigured band and a more controlled sound. The new Content Content (the name is open to multiple pronunciations) benefits from that restraint, and sets a new high-water mark for the group. On the disc’s stunning title track, Waldoch wails to the heavens in an ever-desperate plea that’s more wistful than defeated. It’s a raw and poignant declaration, and plays like a roughed-up, shouted-from-the-rooftops incantation of “Over The Rainbow.” The pronunciation of Content Content may be up for grabs, but the album’s joyful statement of purpose is thrillingly clear.

Updated 10/07/2011