Album Review – In This Town by the The Laughing Chimes (2021) (self released)
Someone once said ‘seek and you will find’. In fact it was probably a bit more than someone and could well have been God, Jesus or someone in the bible. So before I rabbit on too much about stuff I have no comprehension of or offend goddy types, I will leave it there.
However, my regular ‘seeking’ session on Bandcamp has led to this quite brilliant find from an Ohio brotherly duo consisting of Evan and Quinn Seurkamp, who seem to have taken it upon themselves to twist as much modernity out of the 80’s jangle-pop template as possible.
As such we see tracks such as In This Town,Cricket and The Badlands excel in augmenting as much melodic intent into the very earliest of R.E.M sounds. All slightly downtrodden, but with rebellious energy, this is sound of small town America before anyone really managed to escape from it.
The absolute best of this surprising find can be seen in Try To Change My Mind, Guess You’ll Never Be The Same and House Painted White. These tracks splice the aforementioned aesthetic, with the dry, plink-filled twanging riffs , that mid 80’s anglo acts such as The Loft and especially The Weather Prophets gifted upon an unsuspecting decade. All truncation and isolation in the guitar work, such riffs seem like a sideshow to the Miracle Legion style, vocals and slight rock tempos that they cavort with.
The Laughing Chimes plainly know there jangle from yesteryear and we are blessed by their determination to share such knowledge !!!
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