The Belle Comedians

This five song EP from Fredericton quintet The Belle Comedians hosts some melancholy pop (“Rosy”), sparse baroque drones (“Margaret”) and dainty acoustic ditties (“Louise” - the disc’s true standout) and at only 19 minutes, it’s a nice taste of what this tightly warbled outfit has to offer. Lyrically, the songs teeter into Magnetic Fields/Elliott Smith territory, but they never quite achieve super-memorable status. The fact that the band sounds exactly like My Morning Jacket and Yukon Blonde, complete with lots of reverb and grinding guitars, causes the Comedians to lose once coveted originality points. Add in the fact that the disc and all of its tracks are named after women, potentially causing Lane Kim to become irate and break up with Zach Van Gerbig, and I don’t know what to do with this disc.

Published in Volume 68, Number 15 of The Uniter (January 8, 2014)

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