The Don of Division Street "Animals in Love" (Independent, 2009)

A hint of American brit-pop

From Portland comes The Don of Division Street, a collective headed by Matt Cadenelli with their latest release ‘Animals in Love’. Without a shadow of doubt there is an Americana feel to this overall sound although somewhat subtle as the main focus is far more poppy or maybe even a late 90’s brit-pop essence.

The album doesn’t have the greatest of starts, ‘When I Release Me’ comes across a little twee, disjointed and doesn’t have the best vocal. Things really pick up with ‘Fly Alone’, it’s a lot more convincing with its jaunty rhythm and spiralling guitar riff, there’s a nice southern rock drive to it which seems to suit the sound much better. Tracks like ‘I Never Crawled’ and ‘Mina Bird’ certainly have that Bluetones/Shed 7 appeal to them which sounds a little strange coming from an American band but the songs hang on the big choruses and slow building guitars that is so reminiscent of that 90’s era.

Saying all this, the record has a couple of very pleasant surprises in ‘For Marijke’ and ‘Paint The Day’ which are based around a fantastically authentic slide guitar, just really basic and simple ballads which mix up the album and inject a lot of depth. You won’t feel a mass of inspiration coming from ‘Animals In Love’ but all the songs are well rounded and try to be as big and sincere as possible. On the whole there is a good vibe and it’s all very pretty, but nothing particularly ground breaking.

Date review added:  Saturday, January 30, 2010
Reviewer:  Will Bray
Reviewers Rating:
Related web link:  The Don of Division Street