July 8, 2008

A boy is bathing...

I've been giving the debut album A Fire to Make Preparations by NY quartet The Boy Bathing a few spins the past few days. Appraisals galore have been sent its way, but so far my reactions are quite mixed. Album opener The Beaches Meet the Sea is as beautiful and dreamy a pop song as you’ll ever hear and immediately raises expectations. The rest of the album consists of quite lovely and well-written tracks (with clever lyrics, I've been told), which should be all the foundation needed to produce an excellent album. Still I’m not quite content, with my main objection being that this far to often sounds like yet another Bright Eyes release. Inspiration and admiration is a good thing, but a more serious attempt at trying to distance themselves from Mr. Oberst, would probably have done wonders and transformed this from a really good to a bloody brilliant album! Order it from the band's webpage or wait for it to be digitally released on Tuesday, July 15.
+ The Beaches Meet the Sea

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