Thee More Shallows – “More Deep Cuts ” – [Turn Records]

Something about this 2004 album feels like I’ve been hit by
a tranquilizing gun, I’m laying on the floor physically
immobilized, but my mind is racing. The pop music that drops
here hits right in the middle of the ripple, it’s got that
watery, whispery confidentiality, like early Lambchop. With
saw, mellotron(?), piano in an empty prison, lacrimal strings,
drum heads made out of the freshest paper roses, much sound
here feels like it is built to fly gossamer, but then in
comes a rumbling rickenbacker or that adenoidal android
robodrum to start the album? Can’t pin this butterfly down,
despite its prettiness, and the hushed vox, seems like
something lyrical is lurking in deeper, eerier waters. Like
that sound rushing in the ears at the end of 2AM, what is
that EVP, ESP? This has all the weighty grandeur of a concept
album, without the sticky over-cooked symbolism and boring
self-reference (self-reverence?). Plus the rococo glow here
is clearly home-built, an elegance sans arrogance, how
else can you explain the recurring toy piano? This is just
a dream of a pop album, and the reason your CD player has a
repeat button. Just push it gently, like you’re carefully
inserting the tranq dart deeper into your shallow jugular.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. -Thurston Pillowhead