There was that period a few years back when ornithology swept through band nomenclature: Bower Birds, Butcher Birds, Shearwater (whose entire catalogue became an exercise in exotic bird watching). At least there was more to play with than wolves.
Now into the fray comes Brooklyn’s Birds and their new album, Everything All At Once. The album flies best when it’s in garage territory, like the Jet Boy, Jet Girl semi-psychedelic groove of Scatter, or the sandy pop of Get Away, or even the enveloping emotional dirge of I Can’t Wait. You can have a lot of fun with the post-‘80s syncopated pop of See It All, but Falling cascades through the sky aimlessly and Everyday wants to shake the regularity of structure but can’t quite find the space. The lo-fi Home Home is infectious, in the way that Woollen Kits always were – you can even detect a little bit of Smudge attitude in there too.
The eight-song, 27 minute record finishes up with Slow Time, a sludgy, sort-of-almost-late-era Beatles track, replete with lysergic effects and spiralling moments of sonic exploration. And when it kicks into freak mode, there’s a flash of enlightenment. Everything All At Once isn’t a musical smorgasbord, but there’s more than enough to feast on.
