Labels: self released
Review by: Andy Malcolm
The thing with bands that take influence from American Football is that there are a few ways to go about it. For me, it’s the clever song writing, melancholy lyrics and smart insertion of soft twiddles that make American Football such a good listen. And Muscle and Bone have steadfastly concentrated on the tunes here, much as that other band did once upon a time. It’s a tiny bit beefier in places, and the vocals are strained and strongly emoted. This can give the effect of a slightly more pop punk approach to things. Also of note are the great female backing vocals on “To Fix the Past, You Must Destroy the Future”. For the most part the music calm and even approaches gentle in the delightful Lamp Posts which sounds particularly like Very Secretary. And as you know, American Football owe Very Secretary a fairly substantial debt themselves. Chris French, who once twinkled away in Joie de Vivre, is on hand here to deliver a similar feel to Muscle and Bone’s work. Actually, I am not 100% certain he is on these recordings as his name isn’t on the Bandcamp page, but there you go.
So you get 5 songs of autumnal prettiness, it slots right into the middle of a fairly bustling scene of similar bands, but for some reason in 2012 I am a lot less critical of that fact than I was in 1999 when Deep Elm was hoovering up every single band that ever played a Mineral riff for an emo diaries comp. I’ve probably mellowed, or lost the plot, or something.
Nice stuff.