Labels: foreign leisure
Review by: Andy Malcolm
This record has been out a while, but I fancied cranking out a review of this Sunday afternoon record on a Sunday afternoon. Dave von Bohlen and friends put together a fine LP here, it’s a lot better than the final Promise Ring album (not hard), mixing together simple pop songs and some lighter acoustic elements to form a very cohesive record. It opens on “The Window Is The Door” which is reminiscent in style of the three Owen records (I am sure Mike Kinsella recorded all 3 LP’s at the same time 4 years ago and then slowly released them so as to hope people wouldn’t realise how similar they all were), and very nice it is too. Could be a Vermont out-take I suppose actually! After that be ready for the pop. “Sleep Around” holds no bars. Trumpets, “oh-oh-oh”, “ba-ba-ba”, Davey singing and I am sure he is tilting his head from side to side as he goes. Super catchy. And that sets the scene for the record. Plenty of toe-tapping tunes with von Bohlen doing his singing. I always thought I could listen to DvB sing over the top of anything and enjoy it. Wood/Water disproved that notion unfortunately, but this album is a distinct return to form. I liked this, probably a bunch of other people do to, and probably even more hate it. Fair do’s.