Customer Reviews

Dark Light Daybreak

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There is not a bag song on here and it is well worth the new copy price. It's moody, melodic, and pleasant music that's more accessible than other Saddle Creek bands.

You know how Placebo and Radiohead are always so popular. Well this band is just as good. And this 2006 release is the best this band has to offer thus far. You know how must albums have a few good songs that you love at the beginning... and then the rest kind of fades away so you turn your CD player off. Well this album gets better as you venture deeper into the music of Now It's Overhead. "Let Up" and the title track itself (Dark Light Daybreak) are just as fascinating lyrically as they are musically.

Last, but not least... this band is from one of everybody's favorite labels, Saddle Creek. Start with this album and work your way back to 2004's "Fall Back Open" and 2001's self-titled "Now It's Overhead". You will begin to really dig this band.

Bright Eyes' label-mates seem fated for obscurity. Even as a fan, I had no idea this was out until it was two-months-old. I never saw a print review, or heard a note of it on the radio. Nope, not even the local college station. But 'Dark Light Daybreak' makes it plain that obscurity is undeserved.

The wistful psychedelia is in full flower on 'Daybreak', with its opener, "Let the Sirens Rest", "Night Vision" and "Meaning To Say" being the best examples. The latter is especially good, its gentle sway ending much too soon.

But 'Daybreak' also has a newfound edge. The pounding "Walls" and the suitably-titled "Type A" are muscular and aggressive, while the forceful folk of "Let Up" marches like a Saharan sandstorm, it's minor key tuning and handclaps evoking images of Arabia.

The sheer musicality of this Athens, Georgia quintet is remarkable. Their harmonies, melodies and musical detailing make this one of the richest releases of the past twelve months.

If I have a criticism, it's that too many of the songs end just as it seems they're finding their center. A band like Now It's Overhead seems built for five, six, even seven-minute epics. But the longest track on 'Daybreak' clocks in at four minutes and twelve seconds. Perhaps they want to leave room for in-concert exploration. Or maybe they want to avoid just the kind of jam-band mentality I'm advocating.

In a marketplace dominated by testoserone-addled hip-hop, precious pop princesses and flavor-of-the-month indie bands, one has to wonder whether there's a place for Now It's Overhead.

One can only hope.