 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
From the October 10-16 issue of the Memphis Flyer...
The Bigger Lovers
The Bigger Lovers' second album, Honey in the Hive, may not be the best album of the year, but it is perhaps the most surprisingly consistent. Listening to these 11 songs, you continually expect the band to falter; at least one song will surely fail to live up to the others or will lack a smart melodic hook or a catchy lyric. But, track for track, Honey in the Hive is an unexpectedly solid album, an out-of-nowhere charmer that will hopefully gain this Philadelphia quartet a respectable audience.
The Lovers uphold the fine tradition of post-REM college pop -- jangly guitars, wry and occasionally obscure lyrics, highly hummable melodies -- that put them in rank with the dBs, Toad the Wet Sprocket, the Caulfields, and the Connells. Power chords and drumrolls propel the opener, "Half Richard's," while "Make Your Day" gets high on Skylarking-era XTC.
But the album's high point is "A Simple 'How Are You?'" -- one of the best, most addictive pop songs I've heard all year. As Scott Jefferson croons an unassumingly catchy chorus ("A simple 'How are you?'/Makes me want you in so many ways"), Ed Hogarty earns an MVP award for the keyboard riffs that gleefully bounce through the song.
The Lovers are aware of and not entirely comfortable with their college origins: "Haunts Me Still" recalls the nights "hanging out with Meg and Billy" in the dorm room with shaky regret: "Sometimes, the bile makes it easier to live." It's this uneasiness that motivates the Lovers to sharpen the hooks in these songs, and it raises them above many of their post-college pop forebears. -- Stephen Deusner
Grade: A-
Honey in the Hive
(Yep Roc)