Paper Route - Absence (Universal)

Nashville-based Paper Route is a band that carrys its influences firmly on their sleeve, with immediate references to Air and 1980s new wave pop. Absence is their debut, but it's taken sometime to finally arrive, after the band split and then reformed.

The band is composed of Chad Howat (bass, piano, programming), JT Daly (vocals, keyboards, percussion), Andy Smith (vocals, guitars, harmonica), and Gavin McDonald (drums). With one member described as dealing with programming, this gives you an idea of what the group might sound like. Howat is the whizz with the laptop, and it was a bout of insomnia that led to him discovering he could make music this way.

Ironically, there's a danger some of this album could help with insomnia as the lengthy keyboard excursions begin to irritate and lack imagination. This isn't helped by the album running out of tunes halfway through. The singing style varies from a hushed whimsical ('Enemy Amongst Us') to more full bodied and typical of American rock ('Last Time'), and it's almost as if the band isn't quite sure what it wanted to do.

There are moments like the single 'Carousel', which is very reminiscent of recent material from M83, where Paper Route have gone for the commercial angle. But 'Dance On Our Graves' is more like an experimental Death Cab For Cutie. One of the better tracks is 'Tiger Teeth', where there is definitely a Pet Shop Boys air, with the singer initially mimicking Neil Tennant's vocal better than any Stars In Their Eyes hopeful, before turning up the volume for a catchy chorus with twanging guitar.

Sadly, to balance those high points there are one or too many 'Good Intentions'. This track best displays the band's struggles. "I want to be your silhouette/I want to be your TV Set" is a woeful line and it's sung in such a tortuous way as to feel like one of the worst visits to your dentist.

'Enemy Amongst Us', with its gentle piano intro and the more engaging 'Be Healed' are worth checking out, but after spending so long getting this album together, they could have used the quality control button on the laptop more often. Described as widescreen music, Paper Route has already started appearing in the background on US TV shows, but you probably wouldn't notice them.

Rating: 2/5

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Artist: Paper Route Title: Absence Released: 28/04/2009 Buy Now \| View Details	Artist: Paper Route Title: Are We All.. Released: 08/07/2008 Buy Now \| View Details

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Paper Route's official website
http://www.paperrouteonline.com/

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Paper Route on MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/paperroute

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Published: 25/06/2009 at 00:11
Author: David Spencer
Links: Permanent Link