Bright Victory
Cabins
Score:49
Reviewer: Kyle Smith
Label: Ivy League (Australia)
Reviewed: Jul 1st '10, Released:2010
Nowadays, with digital multi-track recording, a bunch of ambitious youngsters can produce a lush and glossy debut with much greater ease and economy; going lo-fi is a conscious aesthetic decision. In such a climate, it has become routine for bands with middling songwriting skills to create a buzz with a grand, audacious sounding record. Sydney band Cabins are one such band. Sonically, their debut Bright Victory is all sparkle and sheen. The overall affect is high ambition that ultimately over-reaches, failing to meld its numerous disparate elements (exotic instrumentation, 90s throwbacks, Cormac McCarthy-esque lyrical affectations).
Opener ‘Hounds’ kicks off with some dramatic tom pounding before the entry of a dull grunge riff. It plods its way towards a chorus, straining hard to be ominous but there’s no real grit to any of it. The album’s lyrics are littered with cheap Gothic imagery: wolves and buzzards; sinners and whiskey; fire, rain, and wind. All this reinforces what the band are striving for, but there's a real lack of authenticity in the application.
Third track ‘Catcher in the Rye’ is the album’s high point. The rhythm section manages to get a sparse groove going which propels the verses along nicely, piano flourishes filling out the mix nicely. Though Cabins lack the touch to capitalise and the song dies away, there's a hint here that the band can develop their own sound.
Over the next couple of songs, Cabins assure us that this isn't going to happen on Bright Victory. Whether it's swapping mandolins for slide guitars and Mariachi horns (‘The Moon’); trying their hand at Radiohead-lite (‘Foes & Thieves’); or marrying Arctic Monkey with Yes and a very suspect steel drum keyboard sound (‘Father Ripper’), there's too many recognisable influences strewn across Bright Victory. In short, Cabins don’t seem to know what sort of band they want to be. Let’s hope for their sake that, with all the hype their debut is generating, that they’ll shed a few unnecessary layers to their sound and produced something more focused. An album that tells us who they are, not what they've been listening too.
