Lejeune - For Club And Country

A lot of strange things have been happening lately. DC's music scene has become so loaded, that people are finally starting to take notice. There are local bands packing 9:30 Club, there are bands signing to Sub Pop after 2 shows and then there is Lejeune. The band has been in existence since 2003, which makes them relative dinosaurs on the local scene. They released an album in 2004 and have kept a pretty low profile over the past few years, playing only a handful of local shows every year. While the younger bands in the scene have been playing as many shows as possible, attacking the Internet and handing promo Cd's out to anyone who would take them, Lejeune have been honing their craft. They've spent the past year and a half working on their live show and putting For Club And Country together and now it's finally seeing the light of day.

It's rare to find a band that can write songs that are instantly accessible, yet don't sound like they were made to be shoved down your throat. It's even rarer to find a band who can make an actual album that is packed with them. In this age of iTunes and digital singles, For Club And Country is the rare album that is not about the individual tracks. Yes, there are plenty of radio ready songs, but they are merely pieces to a much larger puzzle. It's a cohesive album that is enjoyable from the opening notes of "Your Serene Saturday Night" through the fade out of "Good Times." In between, exists an album full of jangly guitar, enough riffs to write a textbook and some of the most intelligent lyrics that DC has ever produced. Some of those lyrics describe this album better than I ever could: "I want to build a monument, a mausoleum fit to represent the wreck we'll leave behind." They may lack the flash and buzz that many of the young bands on the scene seem to possess, but For Club And Country proves that Lejeune certainly doesn't lack the arsenal.

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