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Butterglory were one of those underrated Indie rock bands.
Maybe it was because they were hard to categorize -- too poppy
for your standard depressive moping; too low-fi to get radio
play. When they broke up in 1997, the two principle members
seemingly disappeared...
Finally one of them, Matt Suggs, has re-emerged finally with
a brand new album, Golden Days Before They End.
Based upon his previous band, I was expecting...I don't know....some
drum driven pop with distorted guitars...or something like that.
Maybe some heart-wrenching complaints about life and breakups.
So when the first song started off with a slight Ben Folds
influence of piano and semi lounge-y vocals, I was a bit surprised...but
I started to bop my head along involuntarily. And I was surprised
by the strength of the lyricism of Soon The Moon Will Glow
and its catchy pop organ melody.
As the album continued, I struggled to place the influences
-- I knew it was in the vein of something familiar, but I couldn't
find it. Yeah, there's that one song (Where's Your Patience,
Dear?) that you can hear a little Velvet Underground on.....and
of course, The Rambler picks from an Irish melody (and
could be an instrumental by the mid-80s Pogues)...but certainly
the instrumentation was too lush to be categorized easily.
But you can't get through a review without drawing a comparison,
can you? so here it goes: as if the Wedding Present were doing
songs by Jeff Mangum (of Neutral Milk Hotel).
That still doesn't do it justice -- Matt Suggs's new release
draws one back in and, furthermore, it's definitely a change
of pace for him. And at first glance, it's quite a good change
indeed. However, upon repeated listening, it seems that the
full instrumentation covers up a lack of substance in the music
itself and that the change in direction evident from song to
song only shows a lack of coherent vision.
Good freshman effort, but needs a little more focus.
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