{"id":3958,"date":"2016-10-12T10:20:29","date_gmt":"2016-10-12T10:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-kevin-devine-instigator\/"},"modified":"2016-10-12T10:20:29","modified_gmt":"2016-10-12T10:20:29","slug":"album-review-kevin-devine-instigator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-kevin-devine-instigator\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Kevin Devine &#8211;\u00a0Instigator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/eebfbbba1bbe0e70e4b12f4e167d0698\/tumblr_oesi6eok1Q1r8no6so1_1280.jpg\" width=\"250em\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p>You\u2019d be forgiven for thinking any artist whose relentless work ethic has delivered nine albums in ten years (not to mention countless EP\u2019s and side-projects) might be running out ideas by now. Not for <b>Kevin Devine<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>The Brooklyn native is back with another set of introspective tracks that greet you like the warm embrace of an old friend from the first listen. The themes are familiar \u2013 political, anti-system, better times, worse times, reflection, frustration \u2013 and set to a mostly college\/alt-rock soundtrack that takes in a good splash of indie, punk and folk and screams of a man who knows how to put a song together. <\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not to say <i>\u2018Instigator\u2019<\/i> is treading old ground &#8211; this is a calmer affair than previous efforts such as 2008\u2019s <i>\u2018Brothers Blood,\u2019<\/i> but decidedly more aggressive than his more recent work with folk-indie project Bad Books. But this might be his most scathing take yet on post-9\/11 America. He\u2019s still pissed off, and no amount of soul-searching, song writing or touring is going to make him ignore what a fucking mess the world is in \u2013 most notably on <i>\u2018Freddie Gray Blues,\u2019<\/i> an ode to the angry and disillusioned communities all over the States being killed and let down by the system time and again.<\/p>\n<p><!-- more --><\/p>\n<p><b>Devine<\/b>\u2019s career to date is a journey that has arguably enjoyed the best of both worlds \u2013 the exposure of both major and independent label support, the ability and confidence to shift between mellow acoustic and straight-up rock records, touring with friends like Brand New, Thrice and Nada Surf, whilst also being an underground solo sensation in his own right. Similarly, <i>\u2018Instigator\u2019<\/i> demonstrates <b>Devine<\/b>\u2019s love for both guitar-heavy alt rock on stand-out tracks like <i>\u2018No Why\u2019<\/i> and <i>\u2018Magic Magnet,\u2019<\/i> and singer songwriters (Elliot Smith, Bob Dylan) on the more folk-y <i>\u2018No One Says You Gave To.\u2019<\/i> There\u2019s even echoes of 60\u2019s blues rock on the organ happy Nirvana-meets-The Doors <i>\u2018Guard Your Gates.\u2019<\/i><\/p>\n<p>This record is perhaps best summed up by Devine himself; <i>\u201cWe\u2019re crying the white privileged blues\u2026\u201d<\/i> Maybe so, but <i>\u2018Instigator\u2019<\/i> is a welcome reminder that <b>Kevin Devine<\/b> isn\u2019t running out of things to say. In fact, I think he\u2019s just getting started. <\/p>\n<p>4\/5<\/p>\n<p><i>\u2018Instigator\u2019<\/i> by <b>Kevin Devine<\/b> is released on October 21st on <b>Big Scary Monsters<\/b>\/<b>Procrastinate! Music Traitors<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Kevin Devine<\/b> links: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kevindevine.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KevinDevineMusic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KevinDevineTwit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Adam Lewis (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adamlew86\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@adamlew86<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019d be forgiven for thinking any artist whose relentless work ethic has delivered nine albums in ten years (not to mention countless EP\u2019s and side-projects) might be running out ideas by now. Not for Kevin Devine. The Brooklyn native is back with another set of introspective tracks that greet you like the warm embrace of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2687,2820,750,1152],"class_list":["post-3958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-big-scary-monsters-recordings","tag-instigator","tag-kevin-devine","tag-procrastinate-music-traitors"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Album Review: Kevin Devine -\u00a0Instigator - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You\u2019d be forgiven for thinking any artist whose relentless work ethic has delivered nine albums in ten years (not to mention countless EP\u2019s and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Album Review: Kevin Devine -\u00a0Instigator - 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