Shelby "The Luxury of Time" CD
[Gigantic Music]
I didn't know what to expect from this one, but I figured it would be sort of a laidback rock thing, which is pretty much what it amounts to. But it's definitely pretty damn good for what it is, too. Another of those bands that sort of walks a fine line between solemn indie rock and straight "alternative" radio rock or what have you (and oddly there are some arguably progressive rock-esque moments to boot), the band's core membership is a duo that writes fairly catchy songs that manage to avoid "pop" trappings or whatever - remaining memorable and easy to listen to, but possessing enough character to feel musically adept. There's a good level of layering going on with lots of pulsing basslines and fluid singing that's very well suited for this music, keeping a restrained yet emotional feeling that's surprisingly effective and forceful considering there are almost no vocal harmonies on the entire CD. It's mostly instrumentation that's pieced together to form a more significant picture, with tracks like "Modify Myself" dropping back to a lull of reverberated guitars over lush synths and electronic smatterings for one of the spacier passages that almost sounds like something Porcupine Tree might do these days. "The Wait" is a little more straightforward and almost "upbeat" in some of its chord progressions and generally peppier tempo, but the vocals still take a little more of a somber angle, and for the most part this stuff isn't too "happy" sounding. There are definitely some bright, relaxing textures to the recording, but it's pretty hard to call a track like "Blue Becomes You" anything but despondent as it shifts from slow paced murmurs of percussion and synths to biting layers of droning lead guitar noise over the course of a surprising seven minutes. Wholly softer tunes like "Jet Blast (Shame)", which is prominently driven by synths and vocals, can cause a bit of a lull in the flow of the record, as this is one of the only songs that I don't really care for at all (the orchestrated synths are sort of overbearing and out of place); but "Green Eyes" is another that's way more rocked out and to the point from a musical standpoint, and tracks like this definitely add some kick and help with the ebb and flow of the album considering it does run barely shy of an hour. I'm a big fan of the sound quality on this release as well. Everything sounds perfectly balanced and crisp, with a really dreamy sense of depth to a lot of the guitar effects, tactful electronics, and swirling layers of instrumentation. And all of that's counterbalanced with a sort of dry resonance to the percussion and some of the more stripped down chord progressions that use a light grade of distortion. The sticking point for me is that everything sounds clear and full, so they definitely know what they're doing with regards to properly representing their particular sound. The packaging looks pretty good too, with a satin finish digipack boasting some brightly colored photographs and some floral patterns or whatever. It could look better, but I like the cover and stuff, so that's cool. The lyrics definitely don't do anything for me and kind of have that semi meaningless form of abstraction going on, to where you know there's meaning there, but content like, "There's a comet in the sky, It can't be seen with the naked eye, Makes it easy for me to hide, behind, inside," doesn't really communicate much, you know? And all that stuff with the forced rhyming... I don't know, that's a bit of a hindrance when it comes to the lyrics on this thing. Overall this is a nice disc, though. A few weak moments aside, it's still not the kind of thing I'd listen to regularly, but it is something I'll hold onto for a rainy day... definitely moody, this one. I'd like to trim a couple of songs off to make it a completely focused affair, but I can live with it. If you listen to a wide variety of music and appreciate the chilled out side of things from time to time see what you think of this. (7/10)
Running time - 51:15, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: The Golden Boy, The Wait, Marigolds, Green Eyes]
Gigantic Music - http://www.giganticmusic.com

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