| Cymbals Eat Guitars Why There Are Mountains |
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 | Tracklist:
01. And the Hazy Sea
02. Some Trees
03. Indiana
04. Cold Spring
05. Share
06. What Dogs See
07. Wind Phoenix
08. The Living North
09. Like Blood Does
| Ranking: #58 for 2009 | |
| | other reviews | tollanddrummer (5)
Cymbals Eat Guitars have managed to create one of the best indie rock debut albums in the past decad... |
On 56 Lists
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| Summary: Indie rock gets a strong shove in the right direction with this tremendous debut album. |
10 of 10 thought this review was well written
In a slew of outrageous claims, hype, and hyperbole there’s usually some truth behind the words of the Internet's growing blog machine. A brief browse through the more popular blogs will more than likely show similar albums clogging up the front pages in skewed order and the simple logic behind that is good music is infectious. It’s not a surprise that Why There Are Mountains has been making its rounds in the blogosphere. Following a nod from Pitchfork under the Best New Music tab, Cymbals Eat Guitars should be expecting a huge influx on the bandwagon and frankly, they thoroughly deserve the praise.
For a band that has immediately been likened to Pavement and Built to Spill, it’s surprising that whilst they draw their most significant comparisons to sources that have shown up on every indie rock band's Myspace ‘influences’ list, they manage to create a sound so genuine. This isn’t just a throwback to the indie rock giants of the 90s; Cymbals Eat Guitars are blowing the dust off a genre that has been growing steadily more stagnant. Delightfully melodic hooks can just as quickly be turned into sweeping moments of chaos and beautifully disorienting clashes of noise are just as easily silenced for a moment of soft piano crooning, displayed in the latter half of album closer “Like Blood Does.”
But hey, you won't even have to look further than the album's opener, “And the Hazy Sea” to know all this. The song perhaps encapsulates everything the band is about, despite not being the strongest on the album. If not the simultaneous wails of vocals and guitar displayed on the opener, surely the range of delicious hooks that follows on “Some Trees” will be enough to convince any listener. There’s no immediate, identifiable structure to most of the songs and the unpredictable nature only makes the music more enjoyable. For example, the first shoegazey minute of “Indiana” serves as a foreboding intro to the next 2 and a half minutes through a couple of subtle piano notes, before breaking out into the most accessible, poppy song on the album, complete with horns and synths.
If this isn’t the debut album of the year, it’s going to take a pretty bold effort to top what Cymbals Eat Guitars have created. Don’t be hasty to judge this superficially because you’re a self-proclaimed blog hype vigilante and don't ignore it because Pitchfork bandwagons are for drones with no taste for real music. Put your re-issued, deluxe version of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain to the side. Open up that damaged part of your heart that you closed up when Modest Mouse started to suck. Indie rock got good again.
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