Lately I’ve been thinking about infusing my reviews with those little descriptive statements that go into press bios and ads for magazines. You know the ones I’m talking about: “Truly stunning!” or “A dynamic tour de force” and underneath that goes the name of the magazine or website it came from. Let’s face it: if we here at Amplifier want to pump up our cred, we’ve gotta start spooning out the platitudes.
Thankfully, along comes this wonderful and praiseworthy new album from California-by-way-of-Alabama’s The Snake The Cross The Crown. It actually does sound like an album made by a band that grew up in Alabama and moved to Santa Barbara should sound. The foot-stompin’, guitar strummin’ back porch folk melodies and solid lyrics share the whiskey with breezy chord progressions, chunky guitar hooks and jangly keyboard flourishes. Cotton Teeth is an album of solid indie-folk anchored firmly into the mantle of British rock (There’s one for the bio!). Think Pavement’s whimsy with The Beatles’ structural integrity (That’s one for the ad!). Opening track “Cakewalk” establishes the band’s guiding principles: “I wanna live on a stage/I wanna play the guitar/and I wanna get paid,” and the rest of the album charmingly follows that gleeful “music-first” mantra. “Gypsy Melodies” builds from light acoustic plinking to a driving guitar-rock singalong. “Hey Jim” sounds like David Byrne fronting Ok Computer-era Radiohead. TSTCTC have produced a gorgeous pop gem that is one of this year’s surprise greats.
~ John Frusciante
Buy Album from CD Universe
