 Birdie
Hilltop
"Surround the Birthday" CDR
Frigital
Records
Genres: lo-fi, indie pop, bedroom pop
Ben Moore
6633 Greenfern Lane
Jacksonville, FL 32277
Jan 31 - Feb 6 2005 |
On Surround the Birthday we get a fine selection of offbeat lo-fi
bedroom pop, falling somewhere in the Asaurus Records / We're Twins
camp. There is a bit more of a rock slant here (in comparison to
many other lo-fi projects), but overall it seems to work well.
In a Smog and GBV vein, Birdie Hilltop chooses to
embrace rather than loathe the lo-fi recording quality of this
work. This means the songs are a bit buffered by tape fuzz,
concealing the imperfections and adding a sense of mystery to the
overall sound.
The predominant style on Surround the is the
dreary, slow song - "Looking For Your Hat" and "You
Know the Dance," for example, are wandering, dark pop tunes that
combine melody with a sort of creepy detachedness. On the other
hand, "That's
My Girl" and "Watch Out" are more energetic and jumpy,
with strong, climactic choruses - these are a bit of a break from the
slow pace of the rest of the work, and they work well to express the
diversity of moods that comprises the record. Meanwhile,
"Running Queens" is one of the disc's best assets - it has a
positive-but-creepy feel to it that seems especially mysterious and
detached.
Surround the Birthday is one of the most satisfying bedroom lo-fi
records I've heard in my life, which is especially surprising given my
infatuations with Smog and (more recently) This Bank Holiday.
Find this Birdie Hilltop release and cherish it; it's worth the
attention of just about any underground pop fan.
86%
Matt Shimmer [Vitals:
5 tracks, distributed by the
band, released 2004] |
