Bottoms of Barrels

Tilly and the Wall | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 23, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Team Love Records
• ASIN: B000F3AJSK
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #154,544 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

The result of five Omaha residents with a penchant for classic 60's pop, boy/girl harmonies, and Americana folk records, Tilly And The Wall celebrate the petulant, determined, feisty nature of youth. They rejoice in tales of dreams followed, mistakes made, and hearts broken. Their debut, "Wild Like Children", consisted of eleven perfectly formed songs bursting with enthusiastic hyperactivity, while emanating a bittersweet melancholy of long lost summers and misguided first loves. This, their follow-up, takes their signature sound to a new level. The choruses are more rousing, the tapping more intense, the instrumentation fuller. Guaranteed to make you love the band even more than you probably already do.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Their Best Yet!, May 23, 2006

By 

Cale E. Reneau "audiooverflow.com" (Conroe, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bottoms of Barrels (Audio CD)

I am in love with Tilly and the Wall.

After hearing their first album "Wild Like Children" for the first time around a year ago, I was instantly hooked by the group's unique style and carefree sound. It's not too often that a band decides to forego the typical drumset for a drum machine, but when a band passes up both of those items for a tap dancer and trash can lids...well, it's time to have some fun! That being said, "Bottoms of Barrels" is a lot of the same, and so much more.

Mike Mogis steps in this timme around as producer, and it shows. The man famous for working with bands like Bright Eyes and The Concretes has made Tilly and the Wall sound much more well-rounded and polished. No longer does Tilly and the Wall sound like a one-trick high school gimmick band. They sound legitimate now, yet they maintain their signature sound.

The album begins with "Rainbows in the Dark," the standard Tilly and the Wall song that doesn't stray much from "Fell Down the Stairs, "the lead-off track to their previous album. What is noticably different, however, is the lyrical content. Whereas "Wild Like Children" was essentially an album about kissing, dancing, and other fun "Child-ish" things, "Bottoms of Barrels" contains more adult lyrics and even more of an adult sound. "Love Song," for example, is perhaps Tilly and the Wall's first attempt at a true acoustic guitar ballad. It is not only more mature than any Tilly and the Wall song before it, but it is also beautiful, well-written, and utterly unique. This matured Tilly and the Wall is all over the place on the album, notably on "Lost Girls" and "Coughing Colors." Despite this, the band has managed to maintain what made them so attractive in the past.

"Bottoms of Barrels" is a really fun album. The first single "Bad Education," for example, perfectly displays how the band has matured musically, yet remained true to their fans and their sound. Additionally, songs like "Sing Songs Along," "Black and Blue," and "The Freest Man" will be stuck in your head for days (and perhaps longer, but I've only had the CD for a week). Don't be mistaken. Tilly and the Wall is back, and they are louder, happier, and more fun-loving than ever before. This album completely wallops their previous efforts, and I am still obsessed with them.

By all means, "Bottoms of Barrels" is an amazing album. Tilly and the Wall is one of the most underappreciated and unnoticed bands in music today. Hopefully, this album will help get them the admiration and attention that they undoubtedly deserve. Indeed, with such attractive melodies and beautiful lyrics, there's nothing on this album that should go unloved. "Bottoms of Barrels" is one of the best albums of 2006 thus far, and from the sound of it, Tilly and the Wall has much much more in store for us!!

Recommended for fans of Tilly and the Wall, Mates of State, The Boy Least Likely To and anyone who needs music to accompany their carefree activities, like playing in the sprinkler.

Key Tracks:
1. "Rainbows in the Dark"
2. "Bad Education"
3. "Love Song:
4. "Sing Songs Along"
5. "Black and Blue"

5 out of 5 Stars

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Care-free Wunderkind, WOW!, October 19, 2006

By 

Arcade "Dark Denim Phantom" (Chicaaawgaa!) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bottoms of Barrels (Audio CD)

These guys totally took me by surprise. I'm coming from an outsider's viewpoint. I read some stuff about them and decided to give them a spin.

Very glad I did!

There's no denying there's alot of subconscious remarks of comparison in my head that come to me when I listen to this.

Does that make this bad? Not at all! With melodies and arrangements that sound as though Oberst decided to sing about pure happy fluff stuff, and percussions that could rival that of Stomp! this group has very much going for them.

Each track molds and shifts into a new sound, and I am reminded of different types of music and of the world. "Bad Education" gives me images of a gun shooter duking it out with a Flamenco dancer, while being backed up by a Ukrainian gypsy band! Weird I know but that's how I envision these songs with each one a story of it's own, regardless of what they're singing about sometime! But they're very much infused with the heart of Americana and very folky yet poppy enough that most won't notice that which is good, in order to branch out to all kinds of people willing to take a listen.

Not only that but the lyrics and the vocals are beautiful! So much are we succumbed to the usual indie folk that really don't have the voice to express their emotions and thoughts. But with these female vocals that stand so strong and vibrant they really compliment the sounds that encompass you and the singers.

And those that say "more tap dancing". Honestly, what is the big deal? It's not a gimmick, it's a part of their instrument base, it's no longer a prank or twist, but an instrument in itself and it works very well.

They can totally keep up with any other drum kit and percussionist out there. They don't take over the tracks nor are they background filler. They fill in just nicely all over. As do the rest of the sounds, be it pianos, organs, synths or trash can lids.

You want to make music you'll find a way and they have!

And these guys are very uplifting, their music evoke almost like that of Aquarius; full of youth, playfulness, mystery and everything we hated back then but long for now!

It's nice to hear something refreshing like this out of all the usual dark and moody or straight up nonsensical lyricism out there.

I highly recommend this album to those that are into beautiful good music.
Now I'm off to listen to their first. I'm sure I won't be disappointed.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bottoms of barrels, top of the heap, November 18, 2006

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bottoms of Barrels (Audio CD)

Tilly and the Wall pioneered a weird new kind of indie-pop -- tap-dance pop!

That worked well in their debut, and it works even better in "Bottoms of Barrels," which makes everything about their sound fuller. The instrumentation is bigger, the melodies are catchier, the tapping is more promiment, and their second album is just more fun in general.

It opens with echoing vocals over a barely-audible electric guitar... then it's joined in by piano, increasingly with drama as the heels start ratatatting in the background. "I was kidnapped real young by the sweet taste of love/Built a fondness for things that just weren't good enough/I cradled the crow, always shooed off the dove/Which tagged me a naïve son," Kianna Alarid sings a little breathlessly.

It's followed up by the lo-fi mellotron swirls of "Urgency" and the Latin-flavoured stomp-stomps of "Bad Education" ("Girls and boys and full frustration/St. Valentine, I think I taste it!"). Then they tap and frolic through shimmering keyboard pop, pretty little piano ballads, solid indiepop, and tambourine-laden dance music.

This Omaha pop band really does have something special -- they really add life and vibrancy to retro indie-pop, and they have a knack for spinning up melodies that make you want to dance whether you like it or not. Perhaps the only weak spot is that their folkier songs are less engaging than their sprightly ones, though these are still above average

The album seems to center on unhappy, rebellious youth -- they're young, feisty, and they want OUT INTO THE WORLD. Boys who want to be girls, frightened young girls, and teens who "slept on the bad side of town." While the lyrics can be playful and fun, they can also be very dark ("so when your bones are broke and you're all alone/and the fog's so thick you can't see up close/just know that i will end up strangled too")

The music is a colourful swirl of bells, tambourine, xylophone, recorder and swirls of warm-tinged keyboard, with some guitar and bass lurking down there somewhere. No drums -- Jamie Williams just tap-dances really hard to the rhythm of the music, and surprisingly it works as well, if not better.

Tilly and the Wall are still as colourful and infectious as ever, and anyone who adored their first album will practically worship "Bottoms of Barrels."