Labels: Peek-A-Boo Industries
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Well, I think the conclusion we can draw here is:
The debut album from these 3 boys that came out last century (how cool does that sound?) was mellow, downbeat, dark indie pop ‘n’ rock, and serves equally well as a Sunday afternoon / summers day soundtrack. This album, on the other hand, contains 11 songs that sound the same, and “Tribute to the Phonecalls”, which is, admittedly brilliant. Fortunately, for you, this song is available on 7″ and you don’t need to own this album. That track is subdued, but bouncy, hauled a long by some Promise Ring like bass, a lovely melody, topped off with great vocals. But from then on, the rock goes downslope as the album wishy-washes over you without impacting whatsoever. Track 2, “Sleight of Hand” is on now, and frankly is boring me rigid. I’m trying to figure out what to do for the next 40 minutes whilst listening, just to make sure I haven’t prematurely written it off. Ok, so maybe there are a couple of other appealing songs on here, like the sleepy “Cancer & Wide Eyed Looks”, and the melancholy strings on the Ida-ish “Cup & String” (appropriately enough) but beyond that…
So it’s all very pleasant and sweet, and maybe it’ll appeal more to indie pop purists who like the prospect of a sub-Built to Spill style band with not much going for them, but it struggles to make me go all mushy about it. Yep, just to define ‘pleasant’, cos it unfortunately fails to reach the heights of being complimented as “nice”. Pleasant means it didn’t offend me, nice means so much more.