Pennsylvania's Idle Wilds play gorgeous pop music that draws a time line directly from the Beatles to Big Star — and in doing so, the band draws attention to itself. The melodies on the Big Hit Records EP reveal singer/songwriter David Gray (no, not that David Gray) to be a pop imagist on a par with Tommy Keene or Marshall Crenshaw — though his themes wallow more in dark self-pity than giddy optimism. "Freakin'" is a hooky Matthew Sweet-style tune; "All the Wrong Reasons" locates its melody and arrangement on the Left Banke; "You're Cool" evokes classic Illinois melody-makers like Pezband and Off Broadway. All the songs are near-perfect, and Big Hit Records is not to be missed by even casual fans of power pop.The quartet's full-length debut, Dumb, Gifted and Beautiful, mixes a slew of fresh originals and new versions of some of the EP's best songs. Repeats include the chorus-pushing "Crying on the Inside" and the heartstring-pulling "Surrounded," as well as "Freakin'." Excessive use of guitar feedback sometimes shrouds the hooks, but Dumb, Gifted and Beautiful — recorded at Ardent Studios and produced by John Hampton — is generally as good as earthy pop music gets. -Touser Press
7 comments:
brilliant record this, takes me back ten years or so when this was one of the must have album alongside such greats as wanderlust, wierd summer, the rooks, red letter day, beagle, daryll ann, brian stevens.......
mick
Good catch -- we loved this album.
I think I requested this a while back - many, many thanks! It's great to hear this one again!
PLEASE REPOST this record! I heard a lot about the Idle Wilds but never found anything in the stores (in my country) I like Gray solo work, most of it, some songs like Babylon or Please Forgive me, but i must admit a whole record is too much.
This album could be very interesting to me, i'm looking forward for it
"(no, not that David Gray)"
So i was wrong all the time. I heard the song of Idle Wilds in "Big Star Small World", is very good
Wow Ray, THANK YOU!
Very nice, very powerful Ray.
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