Austin, Texas has a well-earned reputation for nurturing richly varied musical talent, and Blue Cartoon is perhaps the town’s most accomplished contribution to the harmonic pop niche. September Songs, the band’s fourth album, follows Blue Cartoon’s contribution to the George Harrison tribute album He Was Fab, and arrives four years after its sparkling album The Wonder of It All. While the first three records rang out with chimed guitar bon vivant, the latest displays a smoother, temperate, more acoustic feel, strongly influenced by the early ‘70s “Laurel Canyon Sound” (think Graham Nash, Joni Mitchell, and the obscure Judee Sill). But influences aside, every good band needs at least one crack songwriter, and Blue Cartoon has two: Jeff Tracy and Lee Elliott, who grew up in the golden state before moving to Texas. Tracy, Elliott and company don’t offer “hooks” as much as simple arrangements, punchy rhythms, and lush harmonies. From the mandolin-sweetened alliteration of “She Comes In Threes” (“A tragic hat trick/But magic all the same”) to the imagery of “rusted apples” and oleander fields in “Dreaming Again,” the album drops little lyrical hints of paradise within reach. “Bonny Doon” perhaps best captures this spirit. Not an ode to Scottish poet Robert Burns, it’s a celebration of a small coastal town in California, propelled by singer David Loren’s pleading vocals. “It’s Okay” features droning, honey-dripped harmonies as well as a light, understated pedal steel, while “Where I Wanna Be” reminisces of “lazy days” and “lucky stars” and the intoxicating lure of the California surf. Let’s reiterate: Blue Cartoon are Beatles fans, based in Texas, who yearn for California. Not a stew that’s easily digestible. But on September Songs, Blue Cartoon manage that magic hat trick.
--Peter Kurtz [April 5, 2008]
