Search - Jeniferever :: Choose a Bright (Dig)

Choose a Bright New Album

D.H. Bradley | APO, AE United States | 05/21/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Jeniferever's album Choose a Bright Morning occupies a comfortable, if hazy, position between poppy, mellow post-emo bands such has The Gloria Record and American Football and modern spacey post-rock bands like Sigur Ros, Mogwai, and Explosions in the Sky. It fits perfectly, and should satisfy even the most parochial fans of either spectrum. The strength of the album lies in Jeniferever's ability to draw on both sub-genres to create something both unique and familiar: beautiful, but never cloying, and moving without being too melodramatic.



The band has a guitar and drums based sound subtly ornamented with strings, brass, and electronics. The setup excels for their long, moody mid-tempo ballads with hushed, urgent, semi-spoken vocals. On Alvik, a lovely guitar arpeggio is eventually joined with a simple horn melody and the evocative vocals, maintaining its emotional resonance without devolving into whiny histrionics or musical excess. The highlight is track seven, The Sound of Beating Wings, where a pinging, reverbed guitar melody soars over a gauzy organ and insistent rhythm. The band, however, shows the taste not to reach for an even higher over-the-top epic crescendo, and instead allows the song to sweetly breathe and mellow out after the strong chorus. There are a few missteps, however, with Winter Nights a bit overlong, and the one weak track, the forgettable Magdeleno, is too art-y for its own good with a mushy narrative and plodding sound. But these mistakes forgivable for a young band trying out possibilities.



I'm confident anyone a fan of the referenced bands will greatly enjoy this fine debut. By demonstrating a level of taste and restraint not found in comparable bands, I think Jeniferever has made a meaningful contribution in two sub-genres of indie rock, and should hopefully find themselves gathering a fan base with their beautiful new album."