Search - Chamber Strings :: Gospel Morning

First from chamber pop masters

sunsuperman | Pittsburgh, PA United States | 11/23/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The Chamber Strings' album Gospel Morning was recorded in the mid-Nineties but wasn't released by Bobsled until 99, just two years before their current chamber pop masterpiece A Month of Sundays. This album is a comforting listen in that it reminds you of all that is holy this side of the sunny-faced Beatles and that side of the foreboding Birthday Party, but they take their obvious cues from Nikki Sudden and Dave Kusworth's Jacobites. The first track Flashing Star is a glimpse of their future brilliance with it's chiming opening and Pulp via Bowie dramatic chord changes. Telegram is a slice of upbeat acoustic blues right off of Exile on Main Street--think Sweet Virginia. From there the album breezes through the gamut of Sixties influences, from Dylan to T Rex to Stax style soul, (the usual suspects) but it never quite gets past it's twin influences of Exile-era Stones or Sudden's Jacobites. Lead Chamber String Kevin Junior rattles off two beautiful little instrumental interludes called Victorian Arms and the title track, which sound like they've been taken directly from Nikki Sudden's guitar and dulcimer laden album Dead Men Tell No Tales. In fact Nikki himself plays the vibes on Thank My Lucky Stars, and the Chamber Strings backed Nikki's late brother Epic Soundtracks live. If one were to dig up Epic's last few solo albums they would find a kindred spirit of Junior's. Though this album is enjoyable, it has no real place in the firmament of Nineties rock. Gospel Morning is a pastiche of great influences, well practiced, and alluding to that explosive instant right before David Bowie and Mark Bolan decided to run away with the bloozey rock of the Stones and make it Glam. Though (thankfully) this isn't a retread of those empty Glam years, it is a study in the high-drama of that era. It is reminiscent of what Jarvis Cocker's Pulp would sound like if he made his albums in the snort-it-and-rock early seventies instead of the snort-it-and-dance mid-nineties. Junior isn't the writer that Cocker is but they share a certain studied pomp. This album however is a hint at great things to come and now in 2001 they have come."

I forgot to mention--

sunsuperman | 07/24/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"He even looks just like Dave Kusworth on the album cover"

An excellent recourd with great guitar sounds

sunsuperman | 09/28/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This record is really great. Especially the vinyl version which features 3 extra tracks and a Kevin Junior Poster. I saw the Chamberstrings as backing band to Nikki Sudden and I think they are one of the best american bands around. Like another reviewer said it reminds me also of Dave Kusworth / Nikki Sudden's Jacobites which have nearly the same sound. The Chamberstrings LP is one of my all time favourite records."