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