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February 14, 2005
Review: Robbers on High Street, "Tree City"
A few people (myself included) have compared this band to Spoon, and that's accurate, to a certain extent. Britt Daniel possesses a very distinctive back-of-the-throat kind of voice, and Ben Trokan (ROHS' lead singer) has a similar set of pipes- a coincidence that usually leads music critics to declare some band "the new ______" (for examples of this, see both Coldplay and Muse's debut LPs, where Chris Martin's and Matt Bellamy's (respectively) falsetto voices led the British music press to anoint both bands, at different times, as the new Radiohead). In this case, that would be a mistake: Robbers on High Street are very much not the next Spoon, they're something new and different.
One of the hallmarks of Britt Daniel's songwriting, at least on 'Series of Sneaks' and 'Kill the Moonlight', is that it's very parsimonious- each track is simple, pared down to some hard, minimal essence. Robbers on High Street are a little more expansive in their approach- piano, guitar, drums, bass, and vocals are on almost every track here, and Peter Katis (the producer for 'Tree City', also Interpol's 'Bright Lights' and 'Antics') adds some nice flourishes. This album is just viciously catchy- the melodies on 'Spanish Teeth', 'Amanda Green', 'Descender', 'Love Underground' (the standout), and 'Bring on the Terror', are as good as anything I've heard in the past six months, and the other tracks on the record are just as compelling. A lot of this record has an 'old pop' feel to it: classic progressions, piano balladry, sweet background vocals oohs and ahhs. Anyway, it's an excellent debut album, and hopefully Robbers on High Street will continue to expand upon the sound they've established on 'Tree City'.
If you want to check out some songs from the album, you can stream 3 tracks from the band's website (Spanish Teeth, Japanese Girls, and Montefiore). If you dig those tracks, you can pre-order Tree City (which is released on Feb. 22nd) from Insound right here for $13 (and get a free copy of the band's kick-ass EP, Fine Lines, to boot). Not bad at all.
Posted by Kevin at February 14, 2005 09:00 AM
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Comments
"parsimonious"? somebody must've got a degree in philosophy from the college of william & mary.
Posted by: matt at February 14, 2005 12:14 PM
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