Their press materials use the phrase “indie supergroup,” which is a bit of a stretch – of the three members of the Rescues, you’re liable to recognize only Gabriel Mann’s name, and that’s only if you’ve spent a fair amount of time trawling CD Baby and its kin for unsigned singer/songwriter types – but puffed-up verbiage aside, if you’re at all into introspective, harmony-fueled acts, you’ll want to look into getting yourself a copy of Crazy Ever After right away. The Rescues’ songs are frustratingly uneven – the album veers from strong stuff like opening track “Lost Along the Way,” which sounds like something Fleetwood Mac’s younger cousins would cook up, to mopey coffeehouse tracks like the interminable “California Rain” – but when the trio is on, they’re eminently listenable; it isn’t hard to hear what soundtrack supervisors see in the band. (They’ve already been tapped for “Superhero Movie,” “Igor,” “Army Wives,” and “The Lucky Ones.”) The album’s lack of consistency is particularly aggravating, given that all three of the Rescues made their bones as songwriters, and pooling their material should have been more satisfying than this. All in all, though, not a bad debut, and it’ll be interesting to see where they go from here. (Red Wind 2008)
