The press release reads “ Athens, GA 1996: A loose collective of companions, sharing a common love of classic songwriters such as Dylan, Costello and Richard Thompson, are seeking to distil these influences into a sound…somewhere between The American Music Club and The Replacements“
And to be perfectly frank: it would be very difficult to disagree. It’s a simple design, a simple objective and its been carried out with such an inspired, miraculous innocence that it’s damn near impossible to have anything negative to say about it.
Sharing with Scotland’s Delgados a remarkable appetite for a literary and heart-rending commemoration of the shamed, the pitied and the neglected (compare the Mendoza Line’s spine tingling ‘Triple Bill of Shame’ and the Delgados equally profound ‘No Danger’ if you don’t believe me) the band conspire to build a tenement lined surrealscape of tinkling saloon pianos and fuzzy psychedelic melancholia – 1 parts country to 2 parts swhirling indie.
Moving from the kindly bosom of their home town, Athens to meaner, indifferent streets of Brooklyn seems to have paid off; the ‘otherworldliness’ of fellows Athenians like The Glands, Elfpower, Beulah, Elephant 6 tamed by a brisk, expressive relevance and accessibility.
Although ‘The Queen of England’ has to be the most wonderful Dylan homage in the rich entire history of wonderful Dylan homages to date (abrasive yet moving, lamentful yet playful) tracks like ‘Something Dark’ – sung by Shannon Mary McArdle – raises the improbable spectre of the Ronettes under the direction of David Lynch, and ‘Whatever Happened To You“ dances like a light, skipping breeze across the crags of a tricky terrain.
In short it’s a little pot of gold – a nasal whine short of a Mercury Music prize – a gnats arse short of nothing.