Composer: The Bellfuries
Conductor: The Bellfuries
Label: Moe & Sal
Release Date: 2008-11-19
Rated: NONE
Genre: Indie Rock
The creamy melodies encapsulated in the Bellfuries’ new album Palmyra give the Austin band a fresh new flavor, and signal a bold shift from their 2001 album Just Plain Lonesome. Focusing their attentions on a natural inclination for smooth, full harmonies, this polyphonic junket is a diverse collection of tunes, keenly extracted from musical history’s peaks.
The album is bolstered by the straight, clean production — especially noteworthy is the careful, intuitive synthesis that emerges as the album evolves, making categorization far less important than having sufficient time to give it a few good, thorough listens. These 12 songs teem with twang and radiate the super-poppy, bright tendencies of rock from the venerable ’50s, then finish with a slight sprinkle of glam for good measure.
Unable to escape the influential bedrock of Carl Perkins’ signature sound, the quartet also channels the Kinks at their peak, and perhaps even Mott the Hoople. Definitely worth a listen for someone looking for an adept balance of old and new.
