Who was paying attention to the by last post? If you were, well done. For those of you that weren’t, shame on you. But for your benefit, I promised a new band that sounds a little like a cross between Vampire Weekend and The Shins. Actually, they’re more like Vampire Weekend with a tiny bit of The Shins in them. Whatever the mix, if you like either of those bands, you’ll like this.
Let me take a step back a minute. If you have listened to bands like Vampire Weekend and The Shins, you’ll understand the sort of laid back Californian, guitar jangly sound that these guys make. It’s familiar, it’s tuneful and it’s enjoyable. It is also, however, a bit monotonous. Don’t get me wrong, I love both of the aforementioned bands. But you can have a bit too much of the same.
The Givers debut album called “In Light” (they made an EP before) starts just like the rest of them. The band play their merry tunes and Taylor Guarisco (vocalist and lead singer) sings his song. But then halfway through track 3 (“Saw You First”), a raspy young lady kicks in and to be honest, it,s a very pleasant surprise! Track 4 (“Ripe”), she gets an outing all by herself.
And Tiffany Lamson is the reason you should listen to this album. Not because the band aren’t good anyway and not just for her, but because it adds a great dimension to a formula that already works. I suppose it’s like buying your favourite snack a finding they’ve spiced it up with a drop of Tabasco sauce (I love Tabasco sauce by the way). Cheese on toast is great. Gets a bit boring after a while. Add Tabasco and boom (literally), it’s awesome.
That all said, the Givers are,t ground breaking and as such I’ll give this 2 G’s out of 4. They’re worth a listen so check them out.
GG
Next week… well, you’ll just have to tune in to find out 🙂