The only Flake Music album before James Mercer spun off into The Shins, and it shows - this could easily be the first Shins album. Those chiming guitars, those rich Mercer vocals over top, those keening swerves, that wistful regret, that understated awe.
It's all rougher around the edges, as a first album would be, before it all got polished to Oh Inverted World levels, with a micro-retro debt to 90's underground: think Built to Spill, REM, maybe Pixies // Replacements // Guided by Voices at their very most tuneful. Jesse Sandoval's busy, skittering drums in particular bring a little livewire spark. Totally worth hearing as a little history lesson, pretty good fun besides 3.5/5
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment