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Cubby Creatures: After the Deprogramming
[Rodent]

This album starts out with some brooding notes from a violin, and then it quickly builds into a rock song with some strong indie-tinged male vocals, sort of like Elf Power. As if that wasnt enough, the song then builds into a noisy conclusion with some squealing guitar notes, but the violin never gets completely drowned out.  Sort of like Russell Seniors role in Separations-era Pulp, the violin is a constant instrument on the LP, and it helps give a distinctive flavor to what is already a pretty full sounding indie rock band.  Maybe that is why the Cubby Creatures get some Beatles comparisons, because its true that they pack these tunes with a lot of instruments, and many tracks have that busy feel you get from the Beatles when they would pack up a 3-minute pop song with all sorts of strings and brass.

Pawn Takes Queen is a pretty sweet pop song.  For some reason, the vocals are catchy in a very Pavement sort of way, and I also feel a little bit of Summer Teeth Wilco in the songs arrangement.  There are thirteen tracks here, and not everything is flawless.  There are some instrumentals that sort of ill things up, and a couple of odd tracks like Wallet with some pretty twee tendencies that dont fit the band quite as well as other tracks.  I could bash a song like Song for the Secret for poking fun at music snobs who are probably the bands main followers, but in many ways that would be missing the point of the band.  After the Deprogramming is meant to be very playful and not taken too seriously, and the psychedelic feel of the music helps drive that point home.  The Cubby Creatures arent trying to impart any ingenious wisdom on their fans with their lyrics, but they do have fun picking out common subject matters and inflating their drama with a dose of fun music.

So whats my favorite track?  Age of Smoke has a nice early Bowie feel to it, and pretty intense vocals.  Theres a number of songs here that I like, and I doubt many people could listen to the whole album without finding something to interest them as well.

Cubby Creatures Official Website

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