Customer Reviews

On the Wing Now

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Los Angeles' Foreign Born know how to put a song together. Their full length debut combines an irresistibly epic, dramatically psychedelic guitar style with exigent vocals and a powerfully driven rhythm section. This is not a new invention, but the delivery and the songwriting are exceptional. Think early U2, Jesus & Mary Chain, Walkmen, Chameleons, Sprirtualized, Echo & the Bunnymen, Secret Machines, etc. If "big" and "urgent" ring your bell, the hallways of your brain are in for a fervent reverberation.

Impressions, song by song:

"Union Hall"--This powerful and subtle opener is a mesmerizingly monastic rhythm chant that spreads a surface of safety; where compelling, plaintive vocals dance in a determined plea, wiggling the best glimpse of insight that can be found on a late night barstool.

"Into Your Dream"--Grabbing, pounding rhythm and munching mantra guitar line reflect rock-hard psychedelics from the lava core flow of fuzz rock, all hot and dangerous with possibility and energy.

"Trial Wall"--The opening notes establish an immediate epic quality, evolving into a sort of (not too) gently roaring grandeur built on drone-pop guitar strokes and a repetitive, Bowie-influenced chorus that sticks in your head. Picture green fields on a mountainside, rippled by wind and kissed by a band of overly erotic angels.

"It Wasn't Said To Ask"--A mid-tempo number that rolls with the calm aggression of California Kaleidoscope pop; mixing a smooth, driving rhythm section with guitars that swing from muted raw rock to soaring psychedelic riffs.

"Letter Of Inclusion"--Guitars chime a ringing invitation to compellingly ragged drone-chords, laying the path to a disturbed beauty nestled in the soft cradle of a chorus line that rings promises like clothes flying off lovers. And the song does reach a climax.

"The Nights Tall"--This controlled sprawl of an inner space probe is wrapped in an urgent sense of self-examination. It starts with a captivatingly haunting tribal drum, soothed by gorgeously bombinating harmonic vocals and subtle spitfire guitar bursts disguised as exploding candy shotgun shells--a splitter-splatter of pattern matter in kaleidoscopic evolution.

"Don't Take Back Your Time"--A seething churn of classic, epic psychedelic mantra rock; radiating brooding shoegazer waves like diamond stardust flying from fingers of blissed-out faerie stoners.

"Holy Splinter"--A yearning, looming psych/folk pursuit that uncovers a delicate underboil of simmering, hypnotic color trails; the gentle spread of meshing elements seeking the salvation of density through beauty.

"Keep It All Inside"--This heavenly rush of empyrean euphoria is punctuated by pulsating waves of My Bloody Valentine tremors; a soaring, celestial gathering of cone ring quivers, coyly huddling in the eternal bounce formation of the Michelin Man on ecstasy.

"In the Shape"--Another gigantic glow-spark of grandiose ballad-rock, an extended hook in a medium-tempo meridian of sound--like floating on a giant beach ball in Echo & the Bunnymen's "Ocean Rain", nothing but blue sky and rolling waves forever.

"Never Wrong"--The kind of closer that makes you want to go back to the first song and start all over. A huge, ever-expanding ball of gliding melody in the sort of uber-epic scope that recalls the vital grandeur of U2's first album.

"On the Wing Now" has a uniquely dark elegance, which accentuates the subtle power of psychedelic pop repetition in the arena of epic song structures. It's a powerful debut; large enough in scope to encompass the friendship of freshness and familiarity. You get comfort and excitement in one package. This is good.

Easily my favorite new album of 2007. Somewhat of a sonic mash-up of U2, The Smiths, Jesus & Mary Chain and Echo & the Bunnymen, with maybe a dash of Kitchens of Distinction in there. (Is this suddenly sounding like a Pitchfork review or what?). Comparisons aside, the album is stellar from start to finish, with narely a weak track. If alternative radio latches onto "It Wasn't Said to Ask", "Letter of Inclusion" and/or "In the Shape," this album is going to explode. Kudos to the band for album closer "Never Wrong," a haunting rocker that would have felt right at home on the Bunnymen's "Ocean Rain."