The Felice Brothers: Yonder Is The Clock

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The Felice Brothers: Yonder Is The Clock (Team Love, 2009)

During the last few years The Felice Brothers has been one of my favourite bands and therefore I would like to love Yonder Is The Clock more than I actually do. I’ve tried to convince myself that’s is equally great as Tonight at the Arizona, but I suppose I finally have to admit to myself that it just isn’t. This doesn’t mean it isn’t a fine american folk album, because it definitely is. It just isn’t able to live up to my unfairly high expectations. The problem probably is the fact that most of it just isn’t very instant and the patience of a pop fan is put to real test.  The stories and the harmonies are still captivating, but the song material doesn’t reach the level of early favourites Frankie’s Gun, Your Belly In My Arms and Ballad of Lou The Welterweight. Well apart from Katie Dear, which is a gorgeous folk ballad. My other favourites are All When We Were Young, Boys From Lawrence County and Buried In Ice, but most of Yonder Is The Clock  is “only good” traditional american music. There’s nothing really wrong with that, but one tends to expect more from The Felice Brothers.

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The Felice Brothers at myspace

The Felice Brothers website

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The Decemberists: Hazards Of Love

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The Decemberists: The Hazards Of Love (Capitol, 2009)

I suppose the big question is that why I keep buying The Decemberists albums if I don’t like them anymore. Maybe I want to believe.  I want to believe that I could love them like I once did. Unfortunately it just isn’t happening. The only thing that reminds me of the good old days is Colin Meloy’s voice. That voice still sounds totally brilliant. Unfortunately the music is nowadays over-ambitious and pompous. Why not just write songs, who needs some freakin’ folk rock opera.  The saddest thing is that some of the songs could be great but the larger than life arrangements destroy them. For example The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid starts beautifully, but it soon gets unbearable. There’s a couple of great songs that don’t get out of hand. Annan Water is a really wonderful song and The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned) is almost equally great. Isn’t it a Lovely Night? and The Rake’s Song are also really good and end up on the positive side.  A few others are okay, but about half of Hazards of Love is just way too pompous and almost unlistenable. However, I’m probably not the target audience for this. I prefer small things and a man and a guitar is usually a perfect combination for me. If you’re looking for some ambitious folk opera, The Hazards of Love might indeed be a good album for you. I rather listen to simple pop songs or let some dude with a guitar sing me a heartfelt story about the various ways he has broken his own heart than spend anymore time with this mammoth.

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The Decemberists Website
The Decemberists at myspace

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The Micragirls: Wild Girl Walk

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The Micragirls: Wild Girl Walk (Bone Voyage, 2009)

Just fantastic! I knew I was going to buy this, I knew I was going to like this, but I had no idea that this would be so freakin’ marvellous.  Before Wild Girl Walk I felt that they were a bit one dimensional garage rock band. Always able to get the party going on and being a whole lot of fun to listen to, but still nothing to be truly excited about.  Then came the first preview from the new album in form of the single Summer’s Gone. It blew me away and send shockwaves through my spine. The Micragirls with pop sensibility. Whoah! I’m instantly in love.

Now after hearing the whole album, my love has  grown to sky high levels. I was a little bit afraid that Summer’s Gone might be one-off attempt on softer sounds, but thankfully I was wrong and there’s a lot more flavours, colours and variation on Wild Girl Walk than on the debut. Old fans don’t need to worry either. The garage rock side is still going strong and there’s several killer rock tunes like I Know, Electric Chair Twist and Girl Go Crazy. Stunning 60’s girl band influenced pop moments are in the minority, but they are utterly wonderful and give you some breathing space on this rock’n’roll rocket. It’s probably a good thing that the pop moments are in the minority. If I would get a whole record of stuff that sound like Summer’s Gone, Story of Two and the Wanda Jackson cover Funnel Of Love, I probably would go insane. It would be too much love,  I couldn’t take it, I would have to pass it on to someone else. Wild Girl Walk is a fantastic rock’n’roll record.

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The Micragirls Website
The Micragirls at myspace

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