It Might Take Long
Mindil Beach Markets (2013)
Produced and engineered by Sean McLean Carrie

Reviewed by Yasuko Thanh

Five guys.  Energetic, solid, toe-tapping rhythms. This music swaggers.

If this CD were a person, he’d be the “bad boy.” Shock of hair covering one eye. Tough guy. But with something else about him, too. In the way he moves. Something that says, I drink alone. And when he does, he sometimes cries.

Fans who’ve come to appreciate this band’s diversity won’t be disappointed. Track 7 starts out like a lullaby.  Almost as sweet as chocolate kisses with those little foil wrappers.  But the band’s website accurately warns that “light-hearted danceable jams” are tempered by “dark rock” including “a song about the zombie apocalypse.”

I can imagine playing this CD while driving in my car with an elbow out the window. Hanging at the beach, sand in my toes. Or cleaning empties off the kitchen table while clouds roll by outside dirty panes of glass.

There’s some great guitar work here. An I-mean-business style of playing that forces the listener to sit up and pay attention. Do not be fooled by the feel-good innocence of some of these songs. Tracks like those of a roller coaster switch quickly and the next thing you know you’re being taken on a wild ride through other sounds. Good ol’ fashioned rock, sunshine-reggae, even glimmers of punk.The songs flow into each other.  And as they do so, they inform each other. They add to the story to create a new whole.

In the past, I’ve stumbled by accident on great bands. Wandered into a gig, wet from the rain, looking more for shelter than music. This CD reminded me of those times  when I’ve not anticipated much but discovered something unexpected.

Yasuko Thanh’s short story collection Floating Like the Dead (M&S) was a Quill & Quire Best Books of 2012 selection.