Don\u2019t think about the Flaming Lips.<\/p>\n
I know. You probably weren\u2019t. But when I mention the name Dennis Coyne, you will immediately think of his uncle Wayne, frontman for the Lips. You will then learn that these guys opened for the Lips on tour and wonder how they could manage to distance themselves as anything other than Lips-lite.<\/p>\n
The younger Coyne definitely draws on the sound and sensibility of his uncle\u2019s band here \u2013 which is inevitable \u2013 but slows down the tempo and makes this a spacier, prog rock and left-field pop outing that draws from our favorite bands of the \u201870s without really transcending them.<\/p>\n
This is not unusual for a debut, of course, and it\u2019s evident from The Birth <\/i>that this band has a bright future. The sunny \u201cKeep Score\u201d blends mid-period Beach Boys and early career post-Syd Pink Floyd into a laconic pop haze, while \u201cThe Birth\u201d has a similar approach but with a spacier into, guitar crunch and then a breakdown into random effects and jamming; this leads into the fantastic \u201cThose Who Are From The Sun Return To The Sun,\u201d which features some killer drum work as well and the most nimble bass riffs of the year. That song and the second half of \u201cThe Birth\u201d reminds the listener a bit of Floyd\u2019s \u201cOn The Run,\u201d which never really stood on its own as a song but worked as an entertaining, transitional set piece. With a little development, the song could have been a modern prog masterpiece, but instead it\u2019s just a fun studio jam.<\/p>\n
It leads into the off-kilter groove of \u201cI Can\u2019t Get Away,\u201d which would be a pretty good single, and the reverb-laden acoustic playing of \u201cThe Age Of The Freak,\u201d a pretty standard psych-prog-pop song that succeeds because of the electric power chord overlay that comes in at the right time with a dramatic flourish, sometimes repeating the same note once, sometimes moving up half a note, creating an unsettling feeling on top of the bliss. <\/p>\n
\u201cCountry Ballad\u201d also draws from the early Floydian playbook, perhaps with a bit of Yes and Supertramp tossed in, while \u201cThe March\u201d does just what its title says, moving forward with a gallop both swinging and leaden. The piece is dense and feels a lot longer than its two and a half minutes, which is a good thing, I guess.<\/p>\n
One would hope this is all leading to a killer prog rock finale, especially given the strident \u201cThe March,\u201d but instead things peter out with a lovely acoustic ballad called \u201cSmoking Pot Makes Me Not Want To Kill Myself.\u201d That cheeky humor and the relatively slight lyrics of the disc give this an air of smart-assery, of a bunch of dudes hanging out, getting high and playing their uncle\u2019s favorite records. Because of the talent here, they are able to pull a few songs together here and a few sketches of great songs together there, giving this the feeling of an unfinished record indebted to its influences.<\/p>\n
But as prog rock debuts go, it\u2019s good to hear one that\u2019s so unassuming and laidback, and in just the right light a certain song will hit at a certain time and warrant the \u201crepeat\u201d button. This inconsistency makes the whole of The Birth <\/i>frustrating, because its best moments make you want to come back for more, but those moments only comprise about half the music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":32079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9470],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-43825","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-stardeath-and-white-dwarfs","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43825"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}