Talking through tin cans

Artist - The Morning Benders
Album - Talking Through Tin Cans
Label - High Wire

The Shins and The Strokes are some pretty fine comparisons for a band that has, so far, only released two EPs.

This debut album more than holds its head up in that company (it's a more listenable disc overall than Wincing The Night Away); in fact, the band sound closer to new indie favourites Delta Spirit (or, on a couple of songs, Band of Horses), in their loose-limbed, largely acoustic, musicality.

The Berkeley, Californian band will be huge, among those people who enjoy the pop rock strand running from the Beatles through 70s Californian singer-songwriters, and the alternative indie scene today.

At song 6, Waiting for a War, the band completely hit their stride - hook-laden bouncy and mesmerising in the way that The Shins occasionally manage.

There is not a mediocre song in the 11, not a moment that invites a 'skip', even though the band switch moods and styles breezily and often. An excellent debut.

Rating 8/10
Mike Rea

11:25am Tuesday 6th May 2008

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