Hoot! A great review in CMJ!
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
on December 1st via their own label, Orange Records Of Gainesville.
Although brothers Eric and Travis Atria have been playing together
since they were children, Morningbell was formed in 2000 and now
includes Chris Hillman on drums and Eric’s wife Stacie Thrushman on
keyboards. The band gained momentum with four national tours and
released its last album, Through The Belly Of The Sea, in 2007.
Initially raucous and upbeat, this new album is reminiscent of the
psychedelia of the early ’70s and glam of the early ’80s. Though the
band’s sound isn’t entirely unique, the music on Sincerely, Severely
feels not recycled but re-birthed. And even though the song’s metaphors
are occasionally disorienting, they are fascinating. (For example, “I
felt smaller than a blue wale, bigger than a fly.”) The masterpiece of
the album, “Stay In the Garden,” is eerily evocative of the White
Stripes’ early work with its sinister, spare melody emerging from
underneath the thrum of upright bass and Travis’ vocals taking on
shades of Jack White’s raw, shaky whisper as he delivers the track’s
culminating question, “Oh Eve, won’t you stay in the garden one more
night with me?” Whether it is the appeal of his voice or our natural
inclination towards the malevolent, but we linger.
http://prod1.cmj.com/articles/display_article.php?id=162548171
