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