Morning Spy “The Silver Age” (Keep Recordings/Abandoned Love, 2005)

The opening ‘Princess Vancouver’ is one of those songs that begins timidly but gradually builds to a swaggering climax, reminding me of Prisonshake, rhyming ‘soothe her’ with ‘Vancouver’ and generally making sense - keyboard drones give way to a huge chiming guitar which is only the head of the duck. Everything else is churning and climaxing; a great beginning. Second track Martha & the Muffins/Blondie, track 3 tries to repeat 1, 4 repeats 3, 5 sounds like Galaxie 500 complete with the combination of vocals nasal and angelic. ‘Sugar Witch’ is a more Americana construction, an easy lope of a song, ‘Honeysuckle Baby’ is a beefed up Marine Girls; ‘The Slow March to Salt White Sleep’ is Explosions in the Sky. It has breadth of influences, depth of intelligence and width of appeal. See if it measures up for you. DC

Date review added:  Friday, April 22, 2005
Reviewer:  DC
Reviewers Rating: