Sunday, November 23, 2008
A+E, Music, Reviews

MODERN SKIRTS

“ALL OF US IN OUR NIGHT” (REDEYE)

The Drive-By Truckers are fans, as is R.E.M., and Athens’ Modern Skirts have opened for both. Mike Mills even produced a track on this much-anticipated sophomore release. In other words, the music world is prepared for this quartet to deliver a great album.

    The quizzically titled “All of Us in Our Night” isn’t it, but it’s still plenty intriguing. For all the praise heaped on the Skirts, the band makes non-confrontational, even conventional pop. Lead singer Jay Gulley has a smooth, natural voice somewhat reminiscent of late Beach Boy Carl Wilson. The songs hew close to a Beatles-Badfinger-10cc aesthetic, only without the effortlessly soaring melodies to match.

   But there is plenty to enjoy about this breezy piano- and guitar-driven material. Tunes such as “Yugo,” which uses the cheap car as a metaphor for love, are sweet without being saccharine and build heft as they unwind.

    The album is apparently a song cycle related to the stunning artwork by Atlanta’s Sanithna Phansavanh, whose paintings adorn the sleeve and booklet. The often melancholy music reflects these sad, eerie and unsettling works featuring washed-out men and women in various states of discontent, although without printed lyrics, the story is too obtuse to untangle. The rich, full production (provided in part by Cracker’s David Lowery) captures the band’s knack for intricate sonic details that, like the album and its artwork, unfurl at a deliberate pace. 3 STARS—Hal Horowitz