yourGigs Round Table

Each week the yourGigs staff set their minds to review new release albums. In this installment: the latest album from The Mess Hall - For the Birds.

Aimee: I've never been a big Mess Hall fan, but I have seen them live several times. Sadly I feel all the elements I've actually enjoyed of their live show - rowdy, chaotic rock 'n' roll and the like - seems to be totally lacking on this record, which actually made me want to curl up in bed, smoke a cigarette and go to sleep. I suppose this album could be a nice listen on a lazy Sunday afternoon; then again you could just chuck on Exile on Main Street and get your boogie on instead. I will forget about this album as soon as I've finished writing this.

*1/2

Alex: This is the second album from the Sydney indie-pop duo who have once again worked with producer Burke Reid (the man behind Jack Ladder, Gerling and The Drones among others). It's actually pretty good, I mean there is an immense similarity between each song, and no real branch out or experimentation with their chosen genre, but the strength of the songwriting and the solid musicality allows the album to stand out among the plethora of generic 'indie popsters' around today; the last song 'Swing Low' really is a pleasure to listen to and shows off the less obvious folk leanings of The Mess Hall.

***1/2

Andy: Two-piece bands inevitably branch out from their original minimal sound, the limitations of just the two instruments bound to be exhausted eventually. The Mess Hall had a red hot go at the bash-and-crash blooze rock and now have embraced a much wider musical scope on For the Birds. There's everything to Bad Seeds-esque looming pianos to snappy n' sexy parts that pre-Scientology-spoiled Beck would be proud of. It's got reserve, tenderness and restrain and oozes dark atmosphere from most of the tracks and is certainly going to shatter many preconceptions about the band.

***1/2

Bella: For The Birds is a pretty dark album. With its interesting mix of electronic-ish loops/effects and a country twang, it feels to me like something that should be playing as you sit in a saloon drinking whiskey by yourself in some one-horse town. Stand-out track? Definitely the first single 'Bell', but there are a couple of other notable ones too (I quite like 'My Villian' and 'Tijuana 500'). This is not an album that will instantly blow you away on the first listen simply because it's so moody, but the storytelling at work in the lyrics is quite haunting and will work away at you whether you realise it or not.

***

Mike: To be completely honest I was never that enthralled with The Mess Hall: they had their moments, but nothing that ever really warranted return listens for me. For The Birds is a completely different ball game; intricate backing lines soar and throb behind their blues-soaked brand of two-man grit, giving a whole new dimension to their sound, almost Eels-esque in tone. All that stomp is still there, but it's far more refined. Good stuff.

***1/2

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2 Nov 2009