The Birthdays – A Spirited Rendition

 This album is pretty much what I needed. I spent 7 hours on my feet today in the box factory, picking things up, putting them down, and occasionally slashing them with poorly designed box cutters. My feet hurt, as do my legs and back, but its all ok, because this album in the sonic equivalent of weed. 

Its folk pop. Nothing really out of the ordinary for that genre, though certainly lush and well written. The production quality is quite good, and the album art is whimsically inoffensive. It’s a bunch of guys with hanglebar moustaches and top hats. The back is a song listing with a pile of top hats. I think everyone secretly loves top hats, so that’s a plus. Lets return to the song writing.

So theres definitely some Beatles in here. Bliss in a basket has this flute breakdown/ trumpet filler background that is pretty much right off of Abbey Road somewhere, but they definitely bring their own spin to the work. They use tempo changes and breaks to bring a fusion jazz feel to the song that clearly makes it much more tribute than rip off. The album is full of fun little hooks like that, things that sound familiar but are warped by other influences to create pop hooks that are addictive and comforting at the same time. The music demands nothing from you, but will reward any listening you may do. The lyrics are well done and the vocals are clear, but if you just want to kind of coast on the music you will still have a good time.

I feel good. I just ate a really big dinner and I feel hungry again. I am worried that my sister gave me this album and is angry that I never thanked her. See, she’s living in Seattle and we don’t get to talk much anymore. I feel like when we do we end up talking shop since she’s all into Landscape Architecture and I’m into Urban Planning and that’s like if she were Leia and I was Luke and she was like I don’t understand why you just cant plant a garden to foil the emperor’s evil plans and I was like well you need a law to make people keep the garden. I worry everyone is disappointed in me. I don’t see even my friends as much as I would like and I moved to Massachusetts specifically so I could hang out with them more, but I still don’t have any money and I feel like any attempt to go out will be more expensive than I can afford. I am bad at being a grown up but it’s not my fault. If only someone would give me a job in garden related law making everything would be ok, and everyone would have to have gardens, and the emperor’s evil plans would be for naught. Oh also the band is from Seattle, that’s why I think she might have given it to me. Anyway its good go buy it. You guys have any fun-yuns you could email to my web zone?