...And The Family Telephone

Flowy, dreamy, happy, indie-pop/folk with Bob Dylan-sounding scraggly male vocals. Metaphorical lyricism that makes some nice introspections; the lyrics draw on Christian bible stories, but only for art's sake; you wouldn't call this Christian music. The album has a pretty uniform sound from beginning to end, with the only change really being the pace, which ranges between nearly rockin' to pretty slow. The sound, lyrics, and vocals, do a nice job of complementing one another, giving the music a strong, distinctive vibe; sounds very indie, but is nice and original, and only gets a bit boring at times because this sound doesn't vary enough between tracks.
FCC clean. Recommended: 1, 5, 10

**1. play this! soothing but upbeat soundscape of guitar, complemented by plinky, high sounding piano noises; male vocals with lyrics that go perfectly with the surreal sound

2. "wet dog afternoon" sums this one up well; slightly melancholy and resigned yet upbeat, with some horns; lyrics go well with sound: "Go and get yourself some sleep/I still love you, dear/ perhaps it gets the best of me sometimes."

3. a bit slower, with more minimal guitar, tambourine, would sound very bob dylan except for highly surreal lyrics and breakdown at end; horns and drums come in a picks up pace

4. slow guitar with that high plinky noise again; female vocals come in for harmony

*5. a bit slower; piano and guitar; male female vocal harmony throughout; plucking of some high pitched strings add nicely (harpsichord?) the very slightest tinge of a country sound

6. upbeat, nice, foot-tappin' beat, male and female vocal harmonies, interesting organ at breakdown

7. upbeat, with a noisy guitar that the other tracks don't have; other than that, nothing real special here

8. quiet, with just really soft guitar (almost sounds like a ukulele) and male vocals

9. male- female vocal harmony; starts out with plucky guitar with organ, then picks up a beat, nice amalgam of different sounds that I can't identify (that notorious plinky noise, some horns, I think as well)

*10. nice, medium tempo, with the same hypnotic guitar as in #1,tambourine, some male-female harmonies;

11. a bit quicker, more forceful lyrics (this is relative, keep in mind) than the other songs, breaks down to quiet guitar and soft female vocals

12. slower, with sad sounding horns; soft guitar, nice in a pretty sort of way

13. slow, with strong piano, male-female harmonies, tambourine

14. sounds like an ending song, with slower pace, horns, with a bit of random, chaotic noise the other tracks don't have; lyrics: "thank you all for taking me so seriously"