The Weather Here
Composer: Buttercup
Conductor: Buttercup
Label: Bedlamb Records
Release Date: 2009-08-05
Rated: NONE
Genre: Recording
Buttercup’s latest full-length is equal parts quiet and mesmerizing. Get the headphones; this one will bring a party to its knees. Not that finely crafted should-be hits “I Am a Tiger,” with its hand claps and “hey”s, and almost criminally catchy “Betta No Better” would be out of place soundtracking a cookout, but The Weather Here’s first two tracks set the tone for a rainy day sort of album. Opener “It’s in the Way” waxes zen-ish as the titular hook suggests you’re being hampered by “what you hate,” “Consensus Chalice” makes a harried reference to “JFK at the free-throw line,” and both songs are minimalist enough to allow introspection on lead vocalist Erik Sanden’s lyrics, which are delivered soft and deliberate, as if straining his vocal chords might snap them. And I’d suggest the band sell drunkard’s plea “Always Alcohol” to Ryan Adams, but Sanden’s voice manages an emotional immediacy that Adams has only occasionally achieved since Heartbreaker.
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