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- Summary: This is the third full-length for the Brooklyn, New York, indie-rock band.
- Record Label: Dead Oceans
- Genre(s): Indie, Rock
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
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Positive: 5 out of 12
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Mixed: 6 out of 12
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Negative: 1 out of 12
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Much of Grrr...ventures pretty far into the cutesy—as the album’s title suggests--but more often than not, Rice and Rudder’s strong rock-sense gives Bishop Allen’s songs enough kick to overcome their cloying elements.
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Perfectly enunciated lyrics, layered instrumentation, infectious melodies, rinse, repeat. The sound wasn’t broke, so Bishop Allen didn’t bother fixing it.
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Repeated listens help to sort things out, though, and the subtle shadings of Grrr... do become more apparent the more you listen--in fact, the album is a perfect example of the old rock crit cliche "The Grower."
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Twee without being cloying, Bishop Allen have dropped any signifiers that might make us think Tilly & the Wall (the clattering percussion, and urgent male/female vocals), and manage to present their light-hearted lyrics as sincere.
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It's hard to criticize an album that feels so good-natured, especially when unoriginality is hardly a mark against this kind of pop, but the band misses again with its lyrics, which, while generally clever, often stray into the realm of overstructured precocity.
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aside from the nicely scuffed 'Dirt on Your New Shoes,' a general lack of spark or lyrical acuity makes even the album's catchiest songs of predestination ('The Ancient Commonsense of Things'), passive-aggression ('Don't Hide Away'), and whimsy ('Cue the Elephants') register as little more than charming diversions.
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Grrr... seems transcribed from a distant memory or read from the pages of a script.
Score distribution:
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Positive: 0 out of
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Mixed: 0 out of
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Negative: 0 out of