Piper by Come Down Kid
I think the easiest way to review this album by Auckland band/duo/not sure Come Down Kid is to do a brief track-by-track analysis then summarise my overall thoughts.
- Baby Please: I liked this song. I thought the accordion was charming in kind of a ramshackle way. The singer has a pretty thick American accent. Not sure if it's real. Makes me think of Jonathan Bree from the Brunettes.
- Won't Burn For Long: Sounds like an Oasis song. But a pretty uninteresting one. Also minus the 'balls' that made Oasis “cool”.
- Won't Change Me: Two songs with “Won't” in the title. Similar Oasis vibe. But with added bizarre (in a non-good way) synth horn stabs. Affected vocal is becoming grating.
- Father's Day: Thought it sounded like the Bats, then realised it didn't really.
- Bag of Retribution: I don't know. The lyrics are a bit cloying. The kooky guitar chug is pretty tough to digest.
- Glass Pipes: The vocals sound amateur. But not in a good way. In a way that sounds like they are trying to be better than they are. Still confused by accent. “Like that ex-girlfriend/it's easy to pretend...”
- When You're Down: Easily better than the last six songs. Prefer this band without the cheap sounding orchestration. Feel like they're better at alt-country and it makes the vocals way easier to take. Possibly about suicide?
- Light Another Cigarette: Ugh. Back to this weird poor man's Oasis (who were already poor). I think it's mainly the synth strings/horn that are really hard to listen to. Hampered also by the fact that these two song writing/production styles do not compliment each other in even the remotest way. The low production values are okay on the skiffley tracks, but they make these ones feel like aural death.
- Don't Say Goodbye: Slight return to the more pleasant form. “When you're gone away/away overseas forever...”. “Overseas” is a strange term to hear in a song. I don't think I've heard it before. Innovative.
In the middle of the first track, I thought I was going to like this album. The chorus and particularly the descending “baby please” hook is really catchy. But then it's just this battle for supremacy between two awkwardly incompatible styles. Which is a bummer.
2/5 stars
By Joseph Harper