Month: September 2008 (Page 4 of 11)

They’ve been called the Canadian Shins and compared, somewhat inexplicably, to Hunter S. Thompson, but the best and easiest point of reference for anyone who hasn’t heard Mother Mother is the Pixies – the five-piece combo takes that band’s sweetly shrill male/female vocal dynamic, boils off all the aggro noise surrounding it, swaps it out for layers of smart, pleasantly unexpected pop production, and emerges with one of the nicest indie surprises of 2008. O My Heart follows Mother Mother’s debut, Touch Up, which earned frothy raves from the hip-crit elite – but don’t let that keep you from experiencing this record’s deliciously catchy pleasures. They’re boundary pushers, but mainly because they have such a rare gift for combining an eclectic spirit with an unerring sense of songcraft; in the space of a dozen tracks, they manage to run the gamut from the classic pop of “Flaming Pile” and “Wisdom” to the stuttering, angular “Hayloft” without stopping to catch their breath. And here’s the best part: O My Heart actually gets better as it goes along, instead of running out of steam after a few great tracks; the eight-nine punch of “Hayloft” and “Wrecking Ball” – the latter of which finds the band sounding like Rilo Kiley’s estranged younger cousins – is as good, if not better, than anything else on the record. And they’re just getting started – we can’t wait to hear what comes next. (Last Gang 2008)

Mother Mother MySpace page

The sticker on the jewel case says it “may be the perfect road trip record,” but that’s utter nonsense – unless you’ve got a Jolt Big Gulp and a few boxes of No-Doz, Firecracker People should under no circumstances enter your car’s CD player during a long drive. This isn’t really a knock against the second effort from Darren Jessee’s Hotel Lights, but anyone expecting music as pleasantly poppy as the stuff he helped create with the Ben Folds Five is going to be disappointed (or asleep by the sixth track). Like Hotel Lights’ 2006 self-titled debut, the new record is a long, pretty drift through one gentle, mid-to-non-tempo ballad after another; when the pace picks up a bit toward the end, with the ever-so-slightly swinging “Nobody Let You Down,” it’s like someone set off a cherry bomb in a library. Still, these songs have a definite lighter-than-air charm, and for Folds fans who have tired of his incessant tongue-in-cheek humor, Jessee’s gentle sincerity will provide a sweetly melodic counterpoint. It may make for crappy road trip music, but it’s an awfully nice soundtrack for a rainy day. (Bar/None 2008)

Hotel Lights MySpace page