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This is the second album, after 2007's eponymous debut, from The Shaky Hands.
The band come from Portland, Oregon: that peculiarly fertile breeding ground
for bands of a certain indie/alt-rock persuasion or ethos. And in such
company as fellow Portlandites The Shins, Modest Mouse, The Decemberists and
Elliot Smith etc etc, they don't seem out of place.
Look beyond, however, the obvious tropes of "jangling guitar" (Air Better
Come), "interesting variety of percussion" (Love All Of) and "slightly
bluesy feel" (Loosen Up, Wake The Breathing Light) and a more interesting
album, and band, begins to emerge. Many of the tracks here have a pretty
dark slant to them, with imagery that belies the lightheartedness of the
music.
If you take a fairly random sample of lyrics used, like "We are
living in war time / In my head and outside" (from Loosen Up); "Everyone is
lost" (Neighbors); "I breathe what others breathe / But I don't feel the
same" (No Say); "I've been abused / So I'm living in hate" (Show Me Your
Life), a really pretty bleak picture of alienation and despair appears.
This is an album with a curious atmosphere and charm of its own, which is
in part thanks to Nicholas Delff's vocal delivery, which is
pitched somewhere between a more-tuneful Dylan and a world-weary Julian
Casablancas. His voice works particularly well on Show Me Your Life - one
of the album highlights, which weaves a tale of a born cynic taking
tentative steps to lose the attitude and start up a relationship or at least
make a connection with a potential lover ("It was only a date / Just like
others do").
Another distinctive feature used on several occasions is a
sort of mantra-like repetition, sometimes accompanied by eastern-style
drones (A New Parade, Air Better Come, Love All Of), which offsets the more
straightforward and expected guitar/bass/drum and occasional piano
stylings.
It's the more downbeat, minor-key tracks that
were the least successful, with World's Gone Mad and No Say in particular
making the pace of the album drag rather in the middle. Those with a more
perky, fast-paced feel like Loosen Up, the lovely We Are Young, You're The
Light, Show Me Your Life and the almost singalong album closer Oh No were
more successful. Fortunately, these outnumbered the slower tracks; overall Lunglight is an enjoyable release.
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