Got their last record a couple of years ago and though I didn't keep it in its entirety, was impressed enough to give this one a try a few weeks ago on its European release. Well, my friends, this is one of my favorites of the year so far. This is for you who like to sing along in the car, shower, karaoke bar, etc., a throwback to melodic pop full of "yeah, yeah, yeah's", "sha la la's" & "whoa, oh, oh"s." Multiple voices...tracked, layered, whatever you want to call it...but I was winged back to great British bands of yore like Queen, Sweet, City Boy and Charlie by them. Many of the UK reviews I read said the band had put an American stamp on the album.....wha' wha' what?! "Greatest Hits"was one of my top two choices for singles, so it looks as if I got it right. The official video hasn't debuted yet, but this will do just fine...
...an excellent song about lovers at the end of a relationship breaking up a "Deserted Island" music collection (you old farts like me out there starting screaming "Stuck In The Middle With You" at the intro, didn't you?). Smart lyrics, so it can still be done. Most likely the reason is seated next to the young singer, his dad. All the bios you'll find have the group listing Syd Barrett as an influence, but my guess is Pops must have been into XTC & Robyn Hitchcock, too.
The story behind the making of this album is the band came over to do a secret SXSW show last year and stayed in Texas a couple of months to record. I'm sure there's domestic influence on the song "Lost In Austin" but I don't hear a TX sauce all over the record. This is the other song I felt deserving of release, seen here two months before even coming to America. Ms. Rose is an artist in her own right and is reportedly a romantic interest of one of the boys...
"Radlands" came out here yesterday and will be the best $8 you'll spend this week.
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