In the grand scheme of things, there are a relatively small amount of albums that can evoke pure emotion or forge a bond between the artist and the listener; those few albums are game changers. Mansions’s New Best Friends was not a “game changer.” It was however a great debut record, one that made Christopher Browder deserve attention in the future. And attention it merits because Mansions’s April 5 release Dig Up The Dead may just be that game changer.
 
Browder’s voice and guitar slowly climb up through the title track of Dig Up The Dead as an array of different sounds suddenly cut off and signal the start of a journey. A new dynamic and subtle energy are automatically established as Browder slowly shifts from singing “I’ll start again” to nearly shouting his battle cry.
 
“Not My Blood” and “City Don’t Care” are sure-fire standouts on the record as they dive into Browder’s gritty history and get personal with audible, sheer emotion behind the vocals, lyrics, and hard-hitting drums. The two tracks mirror similar patterns of invisibility and feeling unnoticed in two drastically different ways that gives each song an identity of its own.
 
While tracks “Blackest Sky” and “Wormhole” are great in their own right, they are also the more “indie-type” songs on the record due to guitar tones and rhythm. But Dig Up The Dead hopefully will not be pushed as a Filter-indie record; it deserves to break through into the ears of the kids who listen to the same songs the man behind Mansions did growing up, not the ones that blindly consume anything labeled “indie” only to later ridicule what doesn’t fit and what has become a packaged formula. Dig Up The Dead should be spread to new ears— not just so-called indie ones— while not leaving the old ones.
 
“Seven Years” is perhaps the most haunting song on the album and one that helps bring Dig Up The Dead to the next level. Browder picks up the same theme of being lost and sings, “If I don’t believe in the afterlife does that mean I can’t go? // Will it be me and me and me alone?” The reoccurring hidden theme ties the record together in a way that is subtle at first but only makes the record all the more the enjoyable on the fourth, fifth, or seventeenth listens.
 
Dig Up The Dead comes to a close with a quiet one-two punch in “Yer Voice.” After nine songs of a similar message, Mansions drops the turn of the record in the chorus by singing, “The one thing that you need // Is the dreams back in your sleep // Where they belong // I’m where I belong // You’ll see // This means everything to me.”
 
Over two years after the release of New Best Friends, Dig Up The Dead is not being released on Doghouse Records, and there were points when it seemed like there might not be a second record. All of that and more just added to the fire and passion that Browder was able to channel with this release. No esteemed producer, no “bucket list” label, no money— just a pen and the openness to share his most raw and inner stories are what secure Dig Up The Dead a top ten album spot of 2011 as well as the possible “game changer” title.

****.5/*****