- Record Label: Dead Oceans
- Release Date: Mar 10, 2009
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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FilterStart-stop measures, tempo changes and harmonized vocals all make the album a grand listen. [Winter 2009, p.98]
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Alternative PressThe chops are there, the gimmck is there, and hopefully, the fanbase will be there, too. [Apr 2009, p.135]
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Benjamin Verdoes and his bandmates have put together a debut of impressive songs that can be infectious and inviting, but also caustic and surprising.
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Bluesy single-note guitar lines compete with jagged chording, the bass thumps out counter-melodies, strained yelping dissolves into pastoral harmony. Yet it all coheres thanks to frontman Benjamin Verdoes' pop instincts and the band's jittery energy.
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One listen is enough to inform the listener that this is a group of very talented musicians who are quite capable of writing tight pop songs, but don't seem terribly interested--at this point in time anyway--in going that route.
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UncutTheir first album doesn't quite match the hype, but is still an appealing piece of go-ahead indie-[pop, with a certain charismatic bagginess and wit that points to a bright future. [Apr 2009, p.91]
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Their name alone relieves the listener of the expectation that anything they do will make much sense, but for those willing to suspend their notions about things such as song structure, St. Helens can be an entertaining, if befuddling, experience.
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Under The RadarThe familial rock trio sadly hit jaded ears. Blame the '90s or The Strokes. [Winter 2009, p.78]
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With more experience, the group could perhaps one day drum up a more cohesive, compelling vision, something that reaches out and grabs you. For now, though, the band's grasping at straws.