Music Review

S/T II: The Cosmic Birth And Journey of Shinju TNT

Album | Akron/Family
By Jim Allen

As eclectic and inventive as ever.

Before you ask, no, we don't know what the title means, but we're guessing that the band really doesn't either, so it's alright. On their second album as a trio (after the 2007 departure of Ryan Vanderhoof), Akron/Family remain as vital, eclectic, and inventive as ever. They've always delighted in a demolition-derby approach to genre-bending, and this album is no exception; for instance, one moment we're in Meddle-era Pink Floyd territory with the feathery vocal harmonies and aqueous guitar lines of "Cast A Net," and the next we're discovering what would happen if the Beatles had overdubbed a gamelan orchestra onto Revolver, via "Light Emerges." That said, two of the band's strongest stylistic home bases form the core of the record - spacey, post-folk balladry, and giddy punk-prog stomps built around rollercoaster melodies and raw, knotty unison riffs. By the time you drift off into the clouds on the wings of the mellow, psych-soaked closing cut, "Creator," you've been through a kaleidoscopic journey that shows Akron/Family is still having a hell of a lot of fun being a band, which is half the battle in itself.

TAGS: ballads, eclectic, folk, indie, prog rock, Psychedelic,

FACTS: Released: February 08, 2011 (Dead Oceans Records); Duration: 48:19

So It Goes