Credit: Found On Internet

There is a welcome geekiness and humour that has been much missed from indie music for quite some time now.  And I really thought this was going to be a prime example of that return, however Brendan Fowler appears to have become too consumed by living.

In employment law, a summary dismissal is one where the circumstances of your demise are so clear cut that it is not even worth contending the decision.  I sense this emotion rings in line with my approach to listening to this record.

Not a million miles away from sounding like Why? on downers, I guess this is a U.S. equivalent of Arab Strap, as earnest as indie rockers get.  This is a new kind of song writing, direct and uncompromising with limited structure.  The results are a hybrid that sounds similar to an old New York band called The Lapse, along with a softly snarled vocal delivery akin to Stephen Malkmus, a Pavement-echoing spastic rap of journal entries that seem an almost direct response to the wetness of what emo has made personable and reasonable.  Then again this method is perhaps far too apologetic, something Americans seem to do so ashamedly well.

Barr regularly sounds like a person exorcising some rather dark demons which only serves to make the record, barring a few exceptions, something of an uncomfortable and sadly unenjoyable listen, which by the end of the nine tracks has proved something of a spoiling factor because this scrawny kid ain’t no Bukowski, more in the league of a clean Jim Carroll.

The undisputed highlight is the wonky “The Song Is The Single”, hinting at what could have been and when “Piled On Piles On Head” and “Context Ender” begin to get a little lively at the end it is too little to late.

In the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger: “stop whining!”  Only in California.

Barr

5RC