The Deaths
Choir Invisible
Sa Records

The Deaths wonder if anyone will hear their songs down in Birmingham, Alabama, on the opener of their Choir Invisible. Hopefully their music will make it way beyond that southern US town and get heard south of the border.  Serving up a poppy, 60s brew—more reminiscent of The Who than The Beatles—the Deaths specialise in short gems that are summer and winter at the same time.

Funereal synth-organs moan through the woozy “A Sea Is A Sea”, as singer Karl Qualey spins a tale of ocean loneliness.  His voice is at the front of the speakers and you can almost smell the rum and tobacco on his breath.  “Go Slow” finds the group in Beta Band territory.  Dizzy drum loops, spacey, sparse guitar and choral ‘ohs’ spin into a kind of white man’s gospel music.

The album is broken up (or glued together?) with short instrumentals, whose spiky electronics and lilting melodies give the album a kaleidoscopic, cinematic presence.

The bonus tracks on the disk sound like Portishead getting lost in some mountain town, with angry rednecks behind them and ghosts ahead.

The Tender Box tore it up at last month’s South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, and their album The Score provides some evidence as to why they’re blowing up.  Slippery electric guitar lines, groovy bass, contagious melodies and echoing galaxy sounds pulsing from a 303; at their best, The Tender Box dance as well as they rock.  They would mix well with Franz Ferdinand, the Smiths and late 70s Stones.
 
On too many occasions the vitality of the sound is tempered by uninspired lyrics – lots of talk of ‘liberty’, ‘reality’, ‘insanity’ and ‘media lies’.  The ballad “Place Called Home” sounds exactly as you’d imagine it would, except for a wicked, flangered Stones solo.
 
Best are “Commuter”, “Msedia Lies” (despite the lyrics, the music rocks) and “Shine a Light” with their propulsive four-on-the-floor disco drums, and sticky, catchy choruses. And verses. And bridges.  Beyond the riffing guitars lurks an other-worldly, spacey sound, played, logically, by Rick Moon.
 
“Oceans Between” serves us a blue sky sound, a clavinet from a lazy beach, a bassline from Studio 54.  I smell a hit single.  Can’t wait for the Daft Punk remix.

MEW And the Glass Handed Kites Sony BMG

The forth and latest album from Danish self-proclaimed “pretentious art rock” band Mew was released in 2005. And while for the past four years they have been all the rage in Europe, opening stadium shows for the likes of R.E.M., they have been all but overlooked in the Americas. That is, until now, when they kicked off their current U.S. tour at this year’s South By Southwest.

And the Glass Handed Kites is a sumptuous mix of muscular riffs and intriguing lyrics wrapped in a rich velvet blanket of pianos and strings.  We’re talking Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev or Zwan here.

The choral vocals that slide in on the opening overture “Circuitry of the Wolf” set the tone for the album – grand pieces with ambitious arrangements and bitter-sweet themes. Oh, and fascinating song titles!

The warm orchestral vision continues through into “Chinaberry Tree”, and just gets better.  The sweeping cinematic violins and cellos are backed by gurgling synthesisers.  It sounds like some robots in tuxedos sneaked their way into the orchestra.

More rocking tracks like “Apocalypso” and “Fox Cub” demonstrate the band’s harder edge, but interesting arrangements and cryptic lyrics keep your brain tingling as well as your ears. Virtually all the songs use varied instruments from the orchestral pallet – xylophones twinkle, drums march and harps ripple.

The overall effect, lyrically and musically, is as deep as the ocean, and as pretty and mysterious too.  The album repays repeated listening, as more and more elements reveal themselves on each play.  As Mew say in the pulsing, hypnotic “Special”, ‘this is a taste that you can’t shake’.

Note from the editor: I saw this band live and they absolutely ROCK!  It’s worth the price of admission for the amazingly trippy visuals alone! So, if there’s a Mexican promoter out there worth his/her salt, they should book them TODAY in a 3,000-person venue before they return to Europe! You won’t be disappointed!