Labels: Merge
Review by: Andy Malcolm
This is the first I have heard from this band since 2002’s excellent “And the Surrounding Mountains”. Not sure why I have ignored Radar Bros three other releases, as “And the Surrounding Mountains” a top notch album, but I probably just forgot about the band, like that Wispa someone found down the back of a sofa recently and sold for £102 on ebay. Anyways, this album isn’t quite in the same league as the 2002 effort for me, pitching a more familiar, 60s mellowed out California sound, with a little Americana country nudging it’s way into the picture here and there. It’s all very laid back and soothing, and makes for perfectly good listening on a calm Sunday afternoon. Individual songs tend not to be particularly distinct, merging into each other, with guitar strumming here, a little bit of piano there, and Jim Putnam’s delightfully warm vocals rather melting into it all. Somewhere in the middle of the album though, things change for a brief while. “On Nautilus” takes perhaps the biggest diversion from their signature sound on this CD, sounding much darker and more in tune with bands such as Codeine or Three Mile Pilot. “Hills of Stone” also dispenses with a lot of the poppier pleasantries that were on display prior. In the context of the album these songs can feel a little out of place, but taken on their own they are great tracks. I’ve found it hard to get focused on a particular aspect of their sound on “Auditorium”, and it doesn’t really help that for the most part I have little to no knowledge of the bands that they are drawing influence from. All I can say is that this is a decent, enjoyable album that will suit the kind of person that lies around not doing very much at all, or the kind of person who needs a bit of inspiration to lie around not doing very much at all. It does drag a tiny bit by the end, but by that point you will have probably drifted away anyway.