ARTiST: The Bye Bye Blackbirds
ALBUM: Houses & Homes
BiTRATE: 187kbps avg
QUALiTY: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.97 Final / -V2 --vbr-new / 44.100Khz
LABEL: American Dust
GENRE: Indie
SiZE: 47.08 megs
PLAYTiME: 0h 33min 23sec total
RiP DATE: 2008-12-15
STORE DATE: 2008-09-30
Track List:
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01. The Ghosts are Alright 5:02
02. Shed the Skin 2:50
03. In Stereo 4:57
04. Edge of Town 3:59
05. Next Door 2:17
06. Original Lights 3:10
07. It Only Costs a Dime 2:10
08. Leave a Light On 3:50
09. Murray Morgan's Last Dream 5:08
Release Notes:
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From Honeymoon to Houses and homes û The Bye Bye BlackbirdsÆ new album offers
memorable songs and lyrically a heightened sense of place, not straying much
beyond the edge of town, but alive to the ghosts who have walked the same
streets and leant against the same bars. The set leads off with the song that
encapsulates this, æThe ghosts are alrightÆ. At first it seems too busy for its
own good but with listening makes ever-increasing musical sense. Its near
euphoric harmonising is characteristic of the BBBs, as is the excess of ideas.
It motors to its conclusion, with the bass not so much buzzing as fizzing; the
ghosts are alive (and after the day before yesterday, these being Left Coast
ghosts, no doubt theyÆre celebrating too).
The whole recording hums with life. On æIn stereoÆ cymbals sound like waves
breaking on the shore while with æLeave a light onÆ, the Blackbirds come as
close as anyone has to achieving the aura of the magically authentic analogue
recording that Lee Mavers apparently always felt eluded the LaÆs. The guitar
crackles with gritty energy that contrasts beautifully with the harmonising
above it. And the group do this without being slaves to tradition or the
limitations of past recording techniques. Even when anachronistically choosing
to cover the Everly BrothersÆ æIt only costs a dimeÆ û æitÆs a song that makes
absolutely no sense in an age where nothing costs a dime and pay phones no
longer existÆ û they find a fit with their own contemporary sound and song
writing, really attacking the song, as say the Jayhawks might have done.
Neither are they afraid to experiment, giving over running time to music which
defies four piece categorisation. æNext doorÆ allows us some moments of
melancholy guitar minimalism heard through a wall, while the album closing
æMurray MorganÆs last dreamÆ recalls æI see the sunÆ from Biff Bang Pow!Æs 1987
Creation LP Oblivion both in its stretched-out psychedelic ambience, and in the
contrast it strikes with what the group is more usually about.
At nine tracks, itÆs perhaps one or two songs light of the classic forty minute
album mark, but thatÆs to remain captive in the mindset of someone who grew up
on albums; in the download age a complete artwork can be any length it needs or
desires to be. IÆm left wanting more û the BBBs have opened up a number of
mineral-filled seams and I hope they keep on mining them.