Edward The Bear
Everyone Gets the Last Laugh (Except You)
Sloth Bear
A sweet sneaky little EP from these Gainesville wackos, EGtLL(EY) popped up out of nowhere to steal my heart. I don’t know what they’re on about, because they don’t work like that lyrically, but I know that these songs meander and jangle and echo and hide and seek and sound real good on a rainy day. (It occurs to me that they’d probably sound fine on a sunny day too, but it rains every time I play this disc. Dismissed as coincidence.)
“Life and How Not to Live It” invokes R.E.M. all right, as it sounds like a Murmur bonus track left on the radiator, all shifting tonalities and halfway-through change of plans. George Papanikos’ voice rings clear on the breezy Britpoppy/Byrdsy “She’s Got Eyes in All the Right Places”: “What could we do / But step aside?” And when Jeff Halle takes the mike for the 6/8 New Wave stompa “Far Behind” (juicy background vocals here!) there is no discernable loss of quality. This is all quite nice… but this EP thing is played out, guys. Let’s have a real album now, huh?
Edward The Bear: http://www.edwardthebear.com
