Cool is an overused word, and I\u2019m as guilty as anyone when it comes to usage. I\u2019ll drop the word in conversation with the effect of an Altoid \u2014 trying to freshen an otherwise ordinary moment.<\/p>\n
So when I describe \u201cSongs From Disko Bay\u201d, the sophomore effort by Brooklyn\u2019s The Inner Banks (married couple Caroline Schultz and David Gould accompanied instrumentally by a dozen others), as a\u201ccool\u201d album, it\u2019s not meant to be a trite assessment because I have nothing better to write. But then again, maybe I don\u2019t \u2014 I\u2019m really on the fence here.<\/p>\n
The opening track, \u201cLemon Tree,\u201d stirs this indecision. Galvanized by Schultz\u2019s angelic voice (a modern-lay Julee Cruise if there ever was one), the music itself limps along at a tepid pace, an indifferent observer to Schultz\u2019s soaring lyrics. Midway through, the song becomes a lingering instrumental with the feel of forfeit. \u201cPyramids\u201d has the same disinterest (dare I say coolness), pulled solely by Schultz\u2019s dreamy cords<\/p>\n
But as the music gets much better, with Gould boasting a host of inventive arrangements, Schultz becomes far too commonplace.
\u201cTournament of Waves\u201d and \u201cBig Bang\u201d are celebrations of sound \u2014 playful pianos, glockenspiels and violins \u2014 while Schultz, once the wow factor, becomes mundane after six songs of the same cadence and vocal structure. They seem aware of this, as subtle yet strong instrumental \u201cBlame\u201d and \u201cCoda (Lemon Tree)\u201d close the album.<\/p>\n
\u201cDisko Bay\u201d is a dichotomy \u2014 when one part flourishes, the other fades, and this tug-o-war fractures an album full of promise.<\/p>\n
And hey that\u2019s cool.<\/p>\n
Or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cool is an overused word, and I\u2019m as guilty as anyone when it comes to usage. I\u2019ll drop the word in conversation with the effect of an Altoid \u2014 trying to freshen an otherwise ordinary moment. So when I describe \u201cSongs From Disko Bay\u201d, the sophomore effort by Brooklyn\u2019s The Inner Banks (married couple Caroline […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-inner-banks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=733"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":736,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733\/revisions\/736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}