Sinking Ships - Out Of Key Harmony

  by Richard Mather

published: 10 / 3 / 2003

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At just over 30 minutes, 'Out of Key Harmony' is a simple collection of short, sharp, bright and breezy, no-frills, back-to-basics, summer pop songs. This Sacramento four-piece have crafted an album reminiscent of Voice of the Beehive, Teenage Fanclub, the Primitives and the Bangles, around Katie Conley’s west-coast American vocals and Matt Levine’s prominent guitar. Simple, but excellent, melodies and hooks are backed up with solid upbeat base from Verna Brock and steady, accomplished drums from Ross Levine. The lyrics of 'Out of Key Harmony' don’t really push back the boundaries of rock and roll, but they are well done as long as your not looking for any profound or penetrating socio-political insights or even just good old-fashioned adolescent rock ‘n’ roll angst. The songs are largely about love in it’s various guises (simple and complicated, lost and yearned for…) , complete with the essential ballad, 'Back to The Start', mid-way through. The title track, which is perhaps the best song on the album, is a heartfelt tribute to a lost loved one, and 'Stars so Bright' closes the album with a homage to the sought for bright city lights of stardom. This album had me wanting to write good things about it by the second time I'd played it loud in my car, so in my personal terms it grew on me relatively quickly, despite a little early irritation at the lack of lyrical incisiveness and the somewhat cute vocals. The tunes themselves really are quite infectious, well arranged and memorable and there are no particularly weak songs. Not feeling the urge to skip specific tracks is a welcome relief, given many of the irritating experiments some artistes find themselves obliged to include on their works these days. So, although there’s nothing startlingly original here and at times it isarguably somewhat clichéd, I was happy to let this go as these catchy melodies invade your brain until you find yourself happily humming along and longing for sun-drenched days in California, driving the Pacific Highway... Unpretentious and uncontentious. Don’t look for anything more. Just press play and enjoy.

Track Listing:-

1 You Can't Push Me Away
2 It Always Ends The Same
3 Give Me My Year Back
4 What Did I Do
5 I'll Fly Antwhare
6 Back To The Start
7 If We Don't Escape
8 Out Of Key Harmony
9 Laughable
10 Complicate Everything
11 Stars So Bright

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