The second album from this Billings, Montana quartet recalls the early work of another middle-of-nowhere band, Lawrence, Kansas’ The Anniversary. With Natural Selection, 1090 Club supplements infinite pop smarts with engaging melodies, choruses of voice, male-female harmonies, and driving tempos. Keyboard accents add to the multi-layered textures, but to return to the aforementioned comparison, while The Anniversary used keys for propulsive drive on its debut, 1090 Club substitutes violin to similar effect. Most of the 10 songs on Natural Selection brim with youthful energy and excitement, but the few songs that slow things also hit their emotional mark. “Conversations,” with its ethereal soundscape, accented with haunting violin, light keyboard textures, and programmed drums, is one of the album’s standouts. If nothing else, Natural Selection proves that at least there’s one cool thing about Montana.
-- Frank Valish
