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Entries in Funeral Dress (1)

Thursday
Jul192012

More Wussy

Should that be 'Wussier'?

Anyway, just in case you weren't immediately persuaded that this is a band worthy of a little obsession, I thought I'd offer an update.

Last Friday's Guardian review of Buckeye was in deliberately circumspect mode, critical antennae stunned by Christgau's gush, Tim Jonze dubious about 'a 17-track compilation that shows the band's progression from earnest, fuzzy college rock to … more earnest, fuzzy college rock'.

Now, come on: don't worry - this will not end in embarrassment.

Evidence?

OK.

Exhibit One: a beautiful, belated vinyl release for the band's first album from 2005 Funeral Dress. This is ideal for the inner fanboy - heavy duty green vinyl with multicolour streaks, absent from Amazon ( both co.uk and .com) so you have to deal with a - very efficient - record store in Cinncinati. The thrill of the chase! And a lyric sheet which helps with...

Exhibit Two: great, quotable lyrics to go with the surging and soaring music. Who (but a stony-hearted churl) could resist the opening couplet of 'Yellow Cotton Dress'? 

The yellow cotton dress is beautiful, no doubt,

But it becomes a motherfucker when you fill it out.

And I'm sorely tempted to quote 'Airborne' in its entirety. One of the great break-up songs, where the loft and lift of the entwined voices in the chorus:

You did not even send me airborne anyway.

Why in the world I hung around it's hard to say.

give the lie to the fuck-you bravado of what it and the rapid-fire, close-rhymed verses purport to say... But I'll let you you check it out for yourself here.