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3 Music Reviews

The City on Film, American Diary EP (Redder Records)

American Diary's opening track "Mary I'm Ready", and its closing instrumental reprisal "Conclusion", set the tone of the 6-song EP as wistful, thoughtful, introspective. It's a delicate, gentle song: potentially surprising for listeners drawn to The City on Film because it's Bob Nanna of Braid/Hey Mercedes' solo project...that is, if they, like me, haven't heard the other scattered City on Film releases over the years, or the debut full-length In Formal Introduction, released earlier this summer by Grand Theft Autum. Gentle as it is, though, this song carries the same melodic, open-hearted quality as the music of Nanna's previous bands. Echoing voices and the sound of a dog barking give the song an in-the-moment feeling, appropriate for a song that brings us outdoors late at night, for an expression of love and promise of change. Some of the other tracks - "Pony's Last Trick" and "You're Gonna Need That Patience Soon" - outwardly resemble Hey Mercedes a bit more - that is, upward energy, more 'rock', but still with honest emotion and a gorgeous, tuneful surface. Nanna has an intuitive way of singing that suits his melodies so well, how his voice rises with emotion, lowers to an almost-whisper at times, and how he can sound both shy and forceful at once. For "Well, It Goes Like This" he turns on the mood lighting, with his voice and the music - commenting in a bittersweet tone on breaking up and moving forward. That song has quiet soul and lounge-music touches, a reminder that The City on Film is a more diverse project than his previous bands. That's confirmed on the excellent "Astray! Astray!", which has the rolling feel of almost a country song, along with playful singalong backing vocals. It's goofier in tone yet deadly serious, a drinking song, a creating song, a moving-on song that resonates with hope but also sadness. By the time the "Conclusion" rolls around, furthering the familiar melody of the opening track, The City on Film have taken us on a quick but lovely roller-coaster trip, touching on hardships and life decisions and affection and betrayal, all delivered through the lens of a wise songwriter with a gift for pop melody and the wherewithal to keep creating, keep pushing along. - dave heaton

The Eames Era, Double Dutch (C Student Records)

If the Eames Era's debut full-length Double Dutch doesn't have one song that stands out as the super-catchy 'should be a hit' single as readily as their The Second EP's "Could Be Anything" did, that's partly because of how consistent an album it is, and how pleasantly melodic it is from beginning to end. They're a young band, college-age I believe, yet they're pulling perfect melodies seemingly right from the air and smoothly melding them with a streamlined, bouncy pop-rock sound. Cleanly put together, so nothing but the essence is there: guitars, bass, drums, and singer Ashlin Phillips' friendly, very Jenny Lewis-like voice (I hate to compare, but the resemblance is striking) - none of them delivering extraneous or indulgent notes. In other words, Double Dutch is just the well-crafted, spunky, tuneful album you need to brighten up your day, make the hours pass by more quickly. The lyrics are playful, goofy at times, yet sincere, concerned with everyday circumstances: how people relate to each other, what they do with their time, the ways they make life complicated or simpler. It's everyday music, dealing with real life and readymade for daily listening. Some of the songs pack an extra power-crunch ("Talk Talk") while accentuating, not clouding the hooks; the closing track "Promises" slows things down to a dreamy crawl, building up with drama to a rock n' roll power-ballad sort of ending. Double Dutch isn't a kid's game, despite the title: it's an exciting debut album from a talented band, already making a strong impression. - dave heaton

Robert Pollard, Music for 'Bubble' (Fading Captain Series)

Steven Soderbergh heads to Ohio to make a film that tries in part to capture real life in a small town there, and who does he ask to do the music? Bob Pollard, of course, whose made a career out of turning his life in Ohio into a warped rock n' roll fairy tale collection. Music for 'Bubble' isn't an album-length soundtrack, just a 6-song EP, but the songs still sound like they're of one piece, some of them variations on the same melody or two. The mood overall is very much in the style of recent GBV, though two of the songs are instrumentals, featuring Pollard playing guitar in a sparse and melodic fashion. The four songs with vocals aren't quite as hook-driven as GBV sometimes get, and sometimes bear a rougher, tough sound that gives the impression that Pollard was imagining young Ohioan long-hairs driving around blaring their car radios. The EP opener "All Men Are Freezing" eventually has that sort of thick rock sound, though at first it's a sensitive, clear farewell ballad. On "I'm No Child" Pollard is singing in more of a wail, though the song itself is softer, doubling as a love song and a rebel yell. Appearing in two versions (the regular one and the "Oh Yeah" version), "747 Ego" feels like the heart of the EP - a sludgy strut that at first seems a bit routine but upon repeated listens reveals itself as a ballsy, bluesy anthem: the perfect musical equivalent of taking a slow-motion cocky walk down the street, hoping everyone in town is checking you out. - dave heaton


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