Bel Auburn--Lullabies in A & C

"We love music from Iceland, houses with front porches, the way the light clings to the Midwest, and are card-carrying anglophiles," declares Bel Auburn. And gee, who isn’t? The Ohioian five-piece returns after their 2004 debut Cathedrals with Lullabies in A & C. I didn’t just include that quote as a cheap way to kick off this review, it displays a warm normalness (they frequently speak of their love for Ohio) alongside plain oddity (Iceland…really?). Their music is the same. Warm melodies like Band of Horses or Sleeping At Last, but intermixed with bits and pieces that bring up the suspicion that not all is as it should be. Bel Auburn inject distorted Pink Floyd and Radiohead into their summer-esque music, and the whole thing comes off as a less-shoegaze version of My Bloody Valentine. Or, in other words, brilliant. "Metropolitan (Watercolor)" combines very intimate guitar lines with explosive, shoegazey melodies and dramatic vocals. Songs like their "Lullaby in A" and "Lullaby in C" are expansive landscapes, and the whole album gives the feel of a half-dream, half-summer-sunset experience, all melded with ear-catching effects that keep you awake through it all (not that it’s so boring that you’ll feel inclined to sleep, but these truly could be lullabies). "Blind Ward" contains some very U2-like guitar riffs, all supported by a fuzzy shoegaze backdrop that float by like clouds in a blue sky (possibly in Iceland). Bel Auburn deliver sun-filled melodies in Lullabies in A & C, songs that pull ambient and shoegaze influences into a picturesque – albeit odd at times – experience. And they’re anglophiles, what’s not to love?

(Published at MusicEmissions.com)