Morningbell

Sincerely, Severely

(Orange)

Record Review by Adam McKibbin

Morningbell pull off some awesomely eclectic tricks on Sincerely, Severely; someone listening in for the first time could be forgiven for thinking that it was an Orange Records compilation rather than the work by a single artist.  They get things going with the feisty indie-pop stomp of “Let’s Not Lose Our Heads,” with its jubilant invocation of the phrase “so many evil motherfuckers” and an energetic hook reminiscent of Los Campesinos.

Tone set?  Not hardly.  From there, Travis Atria starts making like Edward Sharpe at the speak-sing outset of “Marching Off To War,” then channeling Perry Farrell when it comes time to holler the chorus.  The chameleon attack continues on the third track, “Hello, Dali,” which starts out with synth-rock excess before settling into that indie-white-dude-doing-Prince thing that everyone from Jim James to James McNew has enjoyed doing.  Then it’s on to “Soul Ma’am,” which, as suggested by the title, tips its fedora to the Blues Brothers, leading to falsetto come-hithers in the chorus. 

What the hell is going on here?  Whatever it is, it makes for a fun and adventurous listen, one that has repeat play value and also an album that can be comfortably divided up depending on your favorite tracks; Morningbell have a song for all playlist occasions (OK, maybe not all… still waiting for that death metal epic with an echo of deep house).

As Sincerely, Severely moves along and the string and brass sections drop in for extended cameos, the evidence mounts that if they were forced to box themselves in, Morningbell would probably move in the direction of, well, soul, for lack of a better word.  Neo-soul?  Indie-soul?  And while plenty of bands can cite an “everything but the kitchen sink” philosophy to genre-hopping and diverse influences, Morningbell show the good sense to not try to do everything all at once.  Sincerely, Severely is a confident, well-crafted album – a fourth album that’s interesting enough to inspire desire to pick up the three that preceded it.