Bodies of Water is a four-piece from Los Angeles, including the married David and Meredith Metcalf, that have been drawing comparisons with Arcade Fire, Mamas and Papas and even Portishead. A Certain Feeling is their second effort to be released by the Secretly Canadian label in a year and it certainly has its moments.
Opener ‘Gold, Tan, Peach and Grey’ begins with a sombre Delgados-like harmony before exploding into its first fist of “oh oh ohhh’s” racing along with the music building up a keen momentum. Horns join in leading up to the finale that sees Meredith’s voice takes over and merge with the final round of “oh oh ohhh’s” in the song’s climax. The momentum is kept in style with ‘Under the Pines’ which is an undoubted highlight. A circling organ leading into a great guitar riff staves off any vocals for a good two minutes, but you’re allowed thirty seconds to breath as it all calms down a bit before kicking off again in the beefy chorus. “Under and under and under and under the pines” they shout in glorious fashion.
A dramatic change of pace comes with ‘Only You’, a desperately slow ballad drawing images of film noir. It really is a depressing comedown after ‘Under the Pines’ but it cuts off just in time before you make a beeline for the ‘next’ button. ‘Even in a Cave’ lulls you in with a delicate opening and moves through a fairly sinister Sonic Youth middle section, building up into what you think will be full blown rock crescendo but instead salsa type rhythms come out of nowhere. ‘If I Were A Bell’ rattles along nicely complete with a four minute outro that is helped along by the ever trusty oh oh oohhh’s. Closer ‘The Mud Capes Open’ could be seen as bit of an anti-climax but I think it’s really fitting and after the dramatics that has come before it, it has a soothing calmness that leaves you thinking all is right with the world.
68%
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Boring?!?!? are you CRAZY?!?! i think you’re listening to the wrong record, this one is nothing less than thrilling.
yeah i like this one quite a bit too. certainly a step up from their debut, which i wasn’t a big fan of at all. i think 21% is a little low to say the least. still, everyone has an opinion!
‘Hiltler’s Gay Son’ was a joke band name from David’s high school years. Bodies of Water never used that name.
yeah, i guess everyone IS entitled to their opinion… i just can’t figure out how this person formed this one…. i’d like to know what kind of music they find exciting!
who’s grandmother wrote this review?
ok ok
so this is getting confusing – im going to set the record straight on this review.. all the above comments can now be pretty much disregarded.
to explain this situation as simply as possible – we had this album reviewed twice by two different writers.
the review you are looking at was the first one written but contained a vital factual error about the album. the author was aked to re-write but never responded. we decided to run the second review this morning – which had a score of 21%.
in hindsight – I made a decision to personally amend the original review and re-post it.
why?
because the original was 68%, replacing it with such a negative review could seem to be a personal attack on the band or the record company who asked us to amend the initial error. confused? i am.
hope that clears it up. kinda.
Put both reviews up side by side! Don’t pander to record labels; if you do that are you really critics?
nobody is pandering to record labels. the fact is – there was nothing wrong, quality wise with this original review – apart from a factual error that ive now rectified.
by putting the other one up in it’s place it could look as if we are being vindictive against the band and/or label which is something we never do. unless of course the said band is keane – then i dont have a problem with being REALLY vindictive… potato faced cock sucker – see?
im not putting the other review back up. because it’s our policy to run one review per album. simple as. but the reviewer basically thought it was shit, boring and uninspiring – and gave it a 21%.
now can we move on from this please? :-)
I don’t think it is a question of pandering – what it really highlights is how different all our opinions can be, and I guess Rich’s opinion is that this review is the most valid (besides, he is the boss).
Hey look, can we just leave Pandas out of this? What did they ever do?
Blimey i go away for a week and all this happens! I should plan my holidays better.
What was the factual error? Just curious.
I did notice another error in this version as well. The final track is called ‘The Mud Gapes Open’, not ‘Capes.’
Otherwise, love the record. Exuberant, passionate and uplifting in a way some of those other bands aren’t, for me at least. Also, great horn parts that really add drama and grit instead of just generic “horn section” sounding parts.