An easy-going, superbly summery second album from the Californian quartet.
If it’s a pleasantly summery sound you’re after while the sun beats down – best not get too used to it, eh? – then you could do a lot worse than seek out the second album from Californian quartet The Morning Benders. Splicing Beach Boys harmonies with the indie-folk mutterings of Grizzly Bear – imagine the New Yorkers had recorded Veckatimest on the west, rather than the east, coast – Big Echo is an immediate, inviting listen. It’s not breaking any boundaries of inspired expression, but for what it is it’s a fine set indeed.
The record starts wonderfully, the strings of Excuses swelling like shore-kissing waves ripe for riding. From here the band coasts to solid ground, Promises rather more steady of footing and stirring thoughts of the gently rocking likes of Band of Horses and Midlake, assuming the members of both had replaced their naval-gazing introspective tendencies for a sound rather more bubbly and boisterous. That’s not to say there isn’t a tenderness on display, especially when frontman Chris Chu lets lyrically loose about regretting growing up too fast – but unlike the indie-folk luminaries of the contemporary landscape, The Morning Benders aren’t getting lost in melancholy. Theirs is an outlook largely of optimism, and it’s well suited to accessible arrangements that waste little time in establishing their direction.
Lees de rest van deze review op BBC CD recensies (Engels)
Bron: BBC Music