Reviews

In Ear Park – Department Of Eagles

Label: 4Ad

You know those stubbornly anti-CGI and strangely-anchored-to-an-unmoving-retro-image-of-the-future graphics that still come bundled with Windows Media Player and that tumble in random, garishly psychedelic loops endlessly and tastelessly in default to whatever CD you play? Department of Eagles are one of a select breed of bands that make sense of those visuals. And surprisingly that is no criticism. It’s not because they are garish, or tasteless, or even at all nauseatingly overegged themselves, but because they are unquestionably far out, come tethered to a hypnotising central momentum that rarely stops rolling woozily forward, and are in a sense shapeless without forsaking discernable form. Department Of Eagles is Daniel Rossen and Fred Nicolaus, with Rossen also being a member of the similarly experimental Grizzly Bear. What makes Department of Eagles more a companion band than a side project is the plain majesty of what they do. These are pop songs, and bold pop songs at that, crafted beautifully and timelessly, unapologetically psychedelic, a melee of harmonies and organic instrumentation fused electronically – something like Devandra Banhart and MGMT seeing double after a barrel of moonshine at dusk. The title track opens the record with haunted piano, twinkling campfire guitar, trembling folk melodies and ethereal atmospherics darting amongst each other like fireflies, segueing into the whimsical Doors/T-Rex light-footed dance of ‘No One Does It Like You’ and moving on through the playful rag-doll strut of ‘Teenagers’, the beautifully soft White Album-esque ‘Herringbone’ and the adamant, abstract performance of ‘Classical Records’ with you barely noticing the joins. There is very little to find fault with and it is loose and detailed enough for you to let it develop in your mind to whatever extent you please.

Release: Department Of Eagles - In Ear Park
Review by:
Released: 03 November 2008