Bright Men of Learning “Bright Men of Learning” (Independent 2006)

Only halfway to paradise

Do you ever find yourself hankering after half-formed memories, where somewhere in your vinyl graveyard is an undefined sound that is trying to coalesce in your head - you look at the hugeness of the sleeves, remembering the songs, and then you find a CD by the Volcano Suns. You’ve not heard it since your turntable broke and was never replaced. You play it - fantastic: the other half of the memory clicks into place. BMOL are half of what you need to construct compact college pop-rock songs and echoes (Myron) of great bands. ‘Right On’ will remind you of mid-period Yo La Tengo, ‘For Real’ nearly convinces, the guitars melding, welding forming new shapes carving music out of feedback, and ‘A Step Behind’ could be Preston School of Industry, i.e. not quite Pavement but would like to be. All the time they remind you of great things, promise to carry it through, set themselves up but then fall short - the guitar playing is consistently excellent, and songs like ‘Double Strength’ start with the guitars folding back on themselves, pulling you in until the horribly ordinary vocal reminds you it is a dream, it isn’t Big Dipper. Time and again they do this: great set up, poor punchline, and even when they manage to sound like Teenage Fanclub jamming with the Pixies ‘Marching on Water’ the mundane vocal reminds me there’ll be no celestial harmonies, no demented yelps to make it truly memorable.

Date review added:  Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Reviewer:  David Cowling
Reviewers Rating:
Related web link:  Official website