White Wives – Happeners

Last year, singer/Songwriter Roger Harvey released his personal masterpiece under the moniker Dandelion Snow.  The album, The Grand Scheme Of Things, was a rare emotional display of learned honesty capturing the essence of youthful coming of age.  In the process, Harvey gained a valuable and unlikely musical alley in Anti-Flag’s Chris #2 who served as producer.  In fact, so much so that they now share the stage in their new collaboration, White Wives.  Together, and along with fellow Anti-Flag member Chris Head and Tyler Kwedler of American Armada, they combine their punk and indie roots for exactly what you’d expect from such a concoction in their debut full length, Happeners.

White Wives combines Harvey’s wiry emotionalism with a roaring full band backing ranging from punk rock to introspective indie reserve.  Each member plays off the other’s strengths for some of Harvey’s best balance to date.  Chris #2 generally plays second fiddle to Harvey’s commanding lead, but like anything Anti-Flag, rules are meant to be broken.  For instance, after Harvey opens with his very Connor Oberst styled “Indian Summer,” Chris #2 pipes up on “Sky Started Crying” during the first chorus, relieving tension and replacing uncertainty with the confident defiance he knows so well.  Chris #2 also transplants the big gang vocals and choruses of For Blood And Empire era Anti Flag, turning simple phrases into rallying cries as per “Hungry Ghosts.”  Broad scale political topics like consumerism, the dawning of a nuclear era, and free choice also find their way into the project.

But even at the peak of excitement, Harvey stands ready to send these highs crashing back down to earth.  On “Paper Chaser,” Chris #2 and a choir of gang vocals propel the chorus with anthemic volume; at which point Harvey jumps in to ground the track in overwhelming emotional depth.  Other times the two trade between one another while retaining remarkable consistency.  Take “Hallelujah, I’m Mourning,” which finds both vocalists jumping boldly into each other’s paths, completing sentences and phrases without ever stepping on one another’s toes.

The only real downfall to White Wives is the sense of “woah” heavy repetition that tends to dominate the album’s later half.  A given in Anti-Flag’s work but entirely absent with Dandelion Snow, tracks like “The Devil’s Alibi” and “Let It Go” take a nod from punk legends like Pennywise or Bad Religion.  While I’m always down for a good anthem, the frequency feels over-employed, creating a blanket of uniformity that masks much of Harvey’s personal qualities.  Make no mistake about it, these are inspiring anthems, but the technique fails to exude the same enthusiasm on later tracks.

Overall, The Grand Scheme Of Things remains Harvey’s masterpiece, but Happeners will be the project that puts him on the map.  Inversely, Anti-Flag will forever be Chris #2’s truest home, but White Wives will be his creative playground.  Combining two radically varied backgrounds, Happeners is an impressive and altogether unexpected surprise.  There are still some minor tweaks to address in future work, but even now, White Wives has justified itself as a collaboration deserving more than the token title “side project.”