Like a novel unfolding in front of one’s eyes, 2 Foot Yard’s Borrowed Arms works the room with detailed intimacy and simplistic chord structures. Yet, the album is exceedingly uneasy and bittersweet, traveling between the depths of the inner sanctum and worldly idealism. And these multi-instrumentalists with a conscience and dual residency combine the crass gray of their New York with the sunny winds of their Oakland - a combination of smutty cabaret and distorted art pop. While there’s a breezy longing in both the numinous opening track “Octopus” and clangor of “Plane Song,” there’s rage, hunger and intensity in “Seven Houses,” “Crisis” and “One Day in May.” But Borrowed Arms is something to expect from a brilliant trio donating $.50 from every album sale to New York’s Food Change and California’s Canyon School Organic Gardening project to promote community-based awareness and education of sustainable agriculture and nutrition.
--Annamarya Scaccia [April 6, 2008]
