Customer Reviews

Thinks and Feels

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

 

 

What can I say about What Laura Says (..thinks and feels). Great band, you have to see them live to appreciate them, my favorite songs on the album are "Illustrated Manual" and "July 23". "Illustrated Manual" has this great opacity to it, chunky piano, and a bass line straight out of the Beatles (if you do get to see a live show, ask them to play a Beatles cover, I've heard "Don't Let Me Down" and "Oh Darling" and I'd like to think John and George are smiling down from heaven when they hear a band put on such a great cover.)
"July 23" has those great stacatto burst of rythym guitar you hear Keith Richards put down in early Stones records and an instrument you don't get to hear too much anymore, a synthesized organ!
The band itself is a great live show and falls into an emerging genre of music I'd like to call neo-Classic rock, bands that have grown up listening to their parents' 60's and 70's records and have rejected the three chords, a bunch of screaming, and some angst/posturing approach of punk and post-punk alternative for a more harmonic/intimate approach to music. (for example, the Fleet Foxes, Kings of Leon (although they're more neo-Southern Rock), and Sufjan Stevens, among others. They actually know how to play their instruments.... and play them well. Love that these guys are taking it back to when music was about music and not solely the look of the musicians or songs about money/sex....

Check out What Laura Says, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by their Beatles/Beach Boys influenced melodies with a little bit more bite....

Accidently stumbled into these guys in Phoenix AZ. at the Botanical Gardens and what-a-blast. This actually sounds like a album, the way they used to be sequenced. These 11 songs twist and turn and get stuck in the noggin and stay with you. Not a bummer tune on the record. They jump off where Abbey Road ended and turn a blind eye to the 'what's hip today-gone tomorrow' indie scene as of late. The grooves of this record are smokin' barn burners. My favorite track changes every time I play it. Do yourself a favor and buy it sight unseen. And this is only the beginning........

What Laura Says - Thinks and Feels - December 15, 2009

What Laura Says make music that sounds like the internet on their self-titled album. Their songs don't sound like a computer. There is nary a "bleep" or "bloop" to be heard. But the band embraces the access we now have to virtually any music imaginable, largely because of the internet.
The band makes music with the abandon that a precocious child shows with a chemistry set. "Here's some indie rock, now let's add a vial of the blues. Motown-style backing vocals, you say? Why the hell not?"

This mix-and-match philosophy makes their album, Thinks and Feels, an exciting listen. From the country twang of "Get Better Soon" to the R&B leanings of "Waves," trying to predict what will come next is a snipe hunt.

What Laura Says' album reminds me of the direction my music listening has taken over the years. I started with acoustic rock and pop (the base the band seems to start from) and quickly began devouring other genres. I know I'm not the only one that followed this pattern. In this way, the band unknowingly created a concept album about the modern music listener.

My favorite moment was "Dot Dot Dot," a gorgeous acoustic ballad. The beauty of this track is arresting. It's the band's way of saying "Not only can we do it all, but we can put a lump in your throat while we're doing it."

This Tempe five piece is no slouch in front of a crowd, either. Its members (Danny Godbold, James Mulhern, Greg Muller, Mitch Freedom, and Jacob Woolsey) are great live performers, giving the band a reputation for consistently putting on great shows. Check out their links for upcoming show nights.

Mike McQuillian

Check out this original review and many more at yabyummusic.com

I don't know about Laura, but I say buy this record, as I think it is a sublime listening experience & it just feels right. Highly recommended if you enjoy the 2 juggernauts of music mentioned in the Duplo Kid's review & other music of that nature.