City Of Subdued Excitement

Overall, a fun, engaging, cross-genre work. Manages to touch on reggae, country, Dixie, ska, punk, and psychedelia without losing its cohesion. A little poor on the production side, but such complaints seem trivial when the record is so clearly going for emotional effect (happiness!) rather than anything else. REX: 4, 7, 1, 9

1. *Upbeat, relaxing, reggae groove. Lots of horns, good soul vocal backing.

2. Country/Dixie tune. Still poppy and upbeat. Strong N’awlins flavah

3. Weaker version of #2 (a little less country, too).

4. ***A great, dark reggae tune. A little Cake influence on the vocals, some Fat Freddy’s Drop in there too. Good use of horns and gospel singers.

5. Another upbeat tune. Really makes you value that #4. Much in the Ska vibe, very danceable. Interesting slide guitar use.

6. Noisy, punky, and fast. First distorted guitar on the record, straight-forward drums, booming tom fills. Also, only 1 minute long.

7. **Riff-centric, slightly edgy. Some spacey sections, too.

8. Really spacey, almost Hawaiian flavor at first. Turns into a reggae ballad before spacing out again. Minute and a half of silence at the end before...

9. *Hidden track! A little Beirut-esque before going a slightly psychedelic. Mix of surf, reggae, classic rock, and indie vibes.


--21echoes