Boy Wonder - Break The Spell, Etc.

  by John Clarkson

published: 17 / 12 / 2001

Label: Jackass
Format: CD

intro

'Boy Wonder' are one of the United States' best kept indie pop secrets. Highly popular and well respected in their native Boston, and on the rota of many college and local radio stations, they are not

'Boy Wonder' are one of the United States' best kept indie pop secrets. Highly popular and well respected in their native Boston, and on the rota of many college and local radio stations, they are not known outside America (and only available in Europe through Pennyblackmusic). The band's music skilfully and subtly meshes together nineties indie sounds with classic sixties pop, and their powerful, multi-layered songs manage to pull off the double trick of being both contemporary and nostalgic, and bubbly and fun but also thoughtful and intelligent. Spiky, self-aware lyrics combine with catchy tunes, and tight, punchy guitar and drum work link smoothly together with carefully conceived 'Beach Boys' and 'Beatles'-style arrangements and vocal harmonies. Boy Wonder was first started in early 1996 by its frontwoman and principal songwriter Paula Kelley, who was previously in 'The Drop Nineteens' and 'Hot Rod'. The group has since been through several line-up changes, but has now reached what is regarded by both the band itself and its critics alike as its most definitive form. The current line-up has been working together for about a year, and its other band members are long-term Stewart Copeland style drummer, Bruce Caporal, and its two newest members, guitarist Aaron Tap and bassist and occasional pianist, Josh Arakelian. 'Break the Spell etc', a 5 track EP, is Boy Wonder's first offering of 1999, and the band's first release in its new format. The opening title track, 'Break the Spell' from its first exuberant riff is typically forceful and strident. It is sparky with a swooping vocal from Kelley, and is backed by up-beat guitars and a Brian Wilson type vocal arrangement from the rest of the band. 'The End of My Line' keeps many of the same features, and,beginning with scratched, brief feedback and a tattooed military drum beat from Caporal, quickly swirls up into a magnificent, fast whirlwind of a tune with rapidly changing arrangements and shifting, snappy textures. 'Over Your Head', the third and middle song, is a 'Bee Gees' style ballad. Kelley and Tap are avowed fans , playing occasionally in a Boston tribute band 'The Boy Joys' and this beautiful, lavish song is reminiscent of the Gibb brothers pre-disco work of the late sixties and seventies. It seems at first superficially more gentle than the previous two offerings, but builds slowly, with sudden thunderclaps of drums and an elaborate three prong vocal harmony featuring Arakelian as well as Kelley and Tap, to a gorgeous and sumptuous climax. 'X-Large', the fourth track, changes moods again and the first recorded composition of both Kelley and Tap (Kelley wrote the music, and Tap, a poetry major, the lyrics), it is a frantically paced, and funny and humorous duet. Almost punkish in style, but backed by fifties harmonies, it is about a relationship on the slide. Unusually for a record of this kind,rather than simply having its singers spar against one another, it has both Kelley and Tap on breathless vocals taking on as a joint role the one who has stayed, and turn about twin assaulting the one who is doing the leaving. It gives a neat and novel twist and edge to what has become an established format. The last track 'Elenore' is the band's first ever cover recording, and with Arakelein being given the chance to shine with vibrant vocals, it is a faithful but modernised up-dating of the 1968 'Turtles' original. A final and fitting nod to the band's sixties roots, it brings the EP to a tight and forceful closure. This is wonderful stuff, clever and versatile, but never clogging itself down with its style exceeding its content, and anything less than thoroughly enjoyable. Although less than fifteen minutes in length, 'Break the Spell etc' has a durability and character that far stretches beyond many full-length albums. While all the songs here are appreciative of the past, there is a real variety of sound on display here, and each track here varies considerably from the last. This is an EP of many layers, and it is a recording that deserves that a wider audience, and one extending far beyond the spheres of the American market alone. Kelley also appears in a different form on an excellent 7" Rhubarb Records release, which also features Greg Jacobs, the front man of 'Weeping in Fits and Starts' and the label's owner, and Pete Weiss, the established Boston producer and musician. Each musician brought a track each to the record, and contribute to each other's songs. They were recorded in a single day session in January 1997 at Weiss's Zippah studios. Kelley's contribution,her first as a solo artist, is a slow mode fifties style love song of haunting, aching melody and gentle, moody atmosphere that contrasts neatly with the energy of Boy Wonder. Jacobs' contribution, 'Get in with the Deadheads', affectionately and with good humour takes apart 'The Grateful Dead myth, and Weiss's 'Fill Me In' is a short, frenzied, jerking punk number. Kelley appears on backing vocals on both these tracks. Despite the quick recording time, this is sophisticated material and brings out and shows another side of this gifted and talented musician.

Track Listing:-