| |
(Beaucoup de thanks go out to multilingual menschs Cindy Casares and Ryan Cornwell for the translation help.)
________________________
Moviola
East of Eager
Rhonda/Houston Party
On their fifth album, this Ohio band that alternates vocals and instruments, obtains a diverse tapestry of colors but the tone is always the same: high quality pop with their particular homemade touch, a lot of country, a little folk. And the crepuscular shade of infinite placidity.
The twelve tracks on this disc (that's one more than the north american edition) are songs that are awake, but haven't really gotten out of bed yet. The charmer, "Ghost of Daniel Boone" seems to be in a horizontal position, the bluegrass of "About you" is in an easy chair on a porch at dusk, the country of "Halflife" harmonizes with the crickets, "Ashes Pop" has more nerve and intensity, but still hasn't left the hammock, and when they finally do get up, they only manage to make it as far as an electric rocking chair ("East of Eager") or to sound like The Band with overtones of a good roll ("Kew Garden Hills"). This is a common term assigned to others, and in "Hitched" it seems like they've even managed to draw on Bob Dylan, ("Wise Men Say" which also has a nasal voice over a bed of country and harmonica slides.) The other inescapable reference is Neil Young, because to him they owe some of these half tempo electro-acoustics, except theirs are more melodious. It's a delicious disc that isn't quite at the door, but is slowly making its way little by little.
|