The sophomore album from this L.A. quartet, helmed by husband and wife David and Meredith Metcalf, takes the giddy quasi-religious choruses of voice from its debut, the self-released Ears Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink, and substitutes a much darker tone. “Under the Pines” is all skittering guitar instrumental foreboding with backing lyrics of indescribable truths told between individuals in the woods. “Only You” is a curious juxtaposition of subject matter (longing to be near someone) and music (plodding dirge). And “Keep Me On” almost bores with its deliberate insistence over six long minutes in slow, minor key ruminations on goodness knows what, ultimately sounding like Nick Cave on downers. Yet not all is the sound of worry and woe. Even in a Cave” takes its sparse introduction and slowly builds into what could be equated to a horn-filled jig. And “Water Here” excites with loose, winding guitar playing that leads into multi-vocal choral melody and some oblique lyrics about water (“all this heavy, angry water sinks beneath itself”?), before the tempo increases and the song morphs into a danceable guitar, keyboard, and horn shimmy. More than anything, across the nine epic songs herein, Bodies of Water resists categorization, and does so as if its life depended on it. Perhaps call it psychedelic, choral prog, this time with an evil edge.
--Frank Valish [August 14, 2008]
