Bodies Of Water - A Certain Feeling
Another day another facsimile of Arcade Fire. Booooooooooooooooring!!! But wait, don't run so swiftly. Give said water features a chance. Despite the obvious comparison with Montreal's favourite, the opening of 'A Certain Feeling' is a thrilling ride. 'Gold, Tan, Peach and Grey' is a rousing jaunt, with call and response vocals that pull you in on their journey - a call to arms. This is followed by 'Under The Pines' which includes an awesome prog-folk guitar riff, that wouldn't be out of place on an early King Crimson release, and another massive chorus.
But it's after 'Under The Pines' that the rot starts to set in. 'Water Here' starts off like one of the intermissions on Blur's 'Modern Life Is Rubbish' but then descends into a contender for the musical Godspell. Worse still, it ends sounding like the aforementioned musical performed by a school band, whose eccentric teacher has allowed them to finish the production with a bit of added funk - all smiles, wahck-a-wahck guitar and choreographed side to side swaying.
Other tracks like 'Keep Me On', 'Only You' and the majorly disappointing finale 'The Mud Gapes Open' go nowhere, lack direction and bring the momentum of the album to a shuddering halt. Pagan folk intended to be dark and menacing but instead sounding tired and dull.
There are rumours of greatness, take 'Even In A Cave' which is dark and brooding, slowly building before exploding into a psych guitar and trombone freak out for its finale, but on the whole it fails to prick the soul, if anything it's simply ordinary. If you're a fan of Arcade Fire, Akron/Family and even Polyphonic Spree it would not be an unfair assumption to say that 'A Certain Feeling' is far from a waste of your hard earned shillings, but it's been done before and done better by so many.
Top Tracks: 'Gold, Tan, Peach and Grey', 'Under The Pines'.
Released 07/07/2008 on Secretly Canadian