Playing Country

Ode to Sunshine
Delta Spirit
Rounder, 2008
3.5 stars

Named after the taxidermy business of the band’s bass player’s uncle (his mug graces the album’s cover), this Californian 5-piece’s major label debut strives to sound like ‘the good old days’, and for the most part succeeds. Ode to Sunshine sees these reformed emos half-way across the bridge between inner-city indie rock and alt country - their bindles are stocked with acoustic guitar, twinkling piano keys and wavering harmonica, but their Chuck Taylors are still grubby with club floor grime. Songs such as People Turn Around have a real '60s feel, though others are more of-the-moment – it’s easy to cringe at the flannelette-wearing city kids ‘playing country’ on a bush festival weekend, but there’s nothing wrong with wanting a slice of the simple life.

Artwork: B+
If I was 'Uncle Red', I'd be stoked with this tribute. It's been tastefully put together, and combined with some nice studio shots from the band it makes for a nice all-round package. The photos on the front and back of the booklet are like a cross-generation 'cheers', the photos probably taken decades apart.

Published in mX, Thursday August 28, 2008.

Black Forest

No Flashlight - Songs of the Fulfilled Night
Mount Eerie
Artschool Dropout, 2004
8.6/10

I'm new to all things Phil Elvrum. I've never heard of The Microphones, and No Flashlight is my first trek up Mount Eerie, but listening to No Flashlight I imagine it to be something similar to the place on the album's cover - cold, dark and haunted, but not that far away from the city and all it's trappings.

The first thing that struck me about this album is how quiet it is. Much of the album is made up of softly strummed guitar and a steady, gentle beat, with waves of synth washing over but never overpowering. Elvrum's vocals are fragile and unforced - it's as if we're listening to his thoughts as he walks into the forest, away from ... well, whatever the hell it is he's walking away from. And there's definitely something out there, as it catches up to him at the start of the beautiful I Hold Nothing, then disappears, returning in the form of the abraisive The Moan.

But the best bits of No Flashlight aren't necessarily individual tracks (though, for the sake of this review, I Know No One, What I Actually Am and the (2 Lakes)/(2 Mountains) suite are worth skipping to), but the gentle, dreamlike fade between them.

I think Mount Eerie has released a couple of EPs since No Flashlight (there was one earlier this year, Black Wooden Ceiling Opening - a bit heavier than this, but well worth checking out) and he has an album coming out later in 2008. Should be good.

UPDATE: Hindsight

I've decided to revisit some of my past reviews and, where necessary, issue a revised mark. Every now and then I just don't give an album the time it needs, and other times I get a bit carried away and write a glowing review before I've even taken the plastic off the digi-pack, so this gives me a chance to right some past wrongs!

Hindsight marks will appear in red.

O'Doyle Rules

Bits
Oxford Collapse
Sub Pop, 2008
3.5 stars

Over three albums these New York natives all but wrote the book on college-boy indie rock, but with Bits they put pen to the next volume: College-Boy Indie Rock Interspersed With Moments Of Melodic Pop And Instrumental Balladry. It’s a strange mix – there’s plenty of the angular guitar sing-along fare that made up 2006’s tidy Remember The Night Parties, but then a track like A Wedding comes along and throws a cello and a violin into the mix, and the result is a album of, well, Bits and pieces. The bright, sunny pop of Featherbeds works well, but the loose, stupid-happy rock of album highlights Back of the Yards and Young Love Delivers is this young band's bread and butter.

Published in mX, Thursday August 14, 2008

One in the Oven

Hymns For A Dark Horse
Bowerbirds
Dead Oceans, 2008
4 stars

In 2005 singer/guitarist Phil Moore spent time in a cabin observing birds in the Carolina woods. It’s highly unlikely he would have spotted a bowerbird during this stint (they’re Australian natives), but accompanied by girlfriend Beth Tacular, Moore cut himself off from the world and formed the basis of Bowerbirds the band. Rounded out by Mark Paulson on violin, Bowerbirds produce soft, soulful folk of strummed acoustic guitar, minimal percussion and lines of piano accordion, with Moore’s crooning vocals occasionally mirrored by female backing. It feels as light as a feather (courtesy of a clever lack of amplification), yet as warm and welcoming as a perfectly cooked roast chook (album standout Bur Oak in particular). Hymns is one fowl dinner that only gets better with repeat helpings. [Fuse]

Published in mX, Thursday August 7, 2008

Walking the well-worn road

Conor Oberst
Conor Oberst
Merge, 2008
3.5 stars

Elliot Smith didn’t die – he just skipped the border and started covering Dylan and Springsteen songs. Well, maybe. Recorded in a makeshift studio in the Mexican mountains, Bright Eyes front man Conor Oberst’s eponymous fourth album is his first in thirteen years, and his first ‘solo’ album released on CD. It picks up where Bright Eyes left off, but strips it back to a man-and-his-guitar formula, to great effect on tracks Milk Thistle and album highlight/opener Cape Canaveral. That Oberst grew up in Nebraska is a nice link, as tracks such as I Don’tWant To Die (In The Hospital) have a real Springsteen feel. The Dylan link comes in the form of Get-Well-Cards, a fairly straightforward trip down the well-worn American folk road, and on the bittersweet Lenders In The Temple Oberst’s slightly shaky vocals remind of that of the late, great Elliot Smith. Elsewhere he actually sounds quite like Paul Kelly - strange, considering the different accents. Musicianship and vocals aside though, Oberst’s real skill is good, timeless songwriting – Conor Oberst won’t blow your mind, but it’ll be just as good a listen in ten or twenty years time as it is in 2008.

Published in mX, Thursday August 7, 2008