Search - City Boy :: City Boy

Awesome debut from the best undiscovered band

Bruce Barker | NC | 03/04/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the debut album from a former folk band and much of the acoustic influence is still on display. Relying heavily on vocal harmonies and melodic guitar, several of the songs float like a gentle breeze. The two best acoustic tracks bracket the release like bookends. The album opens with "Moonlight (shake my head and leave")a breakup song seasoned with just a touch of mandolin and concludes with "Haymaking Time," a simply gorgeous song carried by the gentle tenor of Steven Boughton. In between the band experiments with various electric/rock sounds with varied effect. When the band clicks, as they do with "5000 Years" and "Doctor, Doctor," they provide a preview of some of their future work. When they falter, it's usually because of odd lyrical choices such as the line, "she's mean and brassy, sharper than a telephone" in the misfire "Deadly Delicious." The true gem on the album, and the best reason to buy this CD immediately, is a song called "Sunset Boulevard." It tells the Garlandesque tale of a faded star living out her time remembering the glory of her youth. The song is melodic, and the lyrics are far above what you find in most other music. What other group in the 70s would write lines like, "by the broken balistrade an idol from another age is swaying... while softly singing Gershwin songs, but every other note is wrong and straining?"



If you are into good lyrics that have a story to tell, this is a rare chance to discover a band that Rolling Stone once said was "what Queen and Styx WISH they sounded like.""