Secretary Bird reviewed
Secretary Bird
Secretary Bird
(In De Goot)
Friends Of Dean Martinez guitarist Mike Semple takes flight on this early-shoegaze/shimmering alt-country pop album.
Reassuringly, on Secretary Bird’s enterprising debut Semple doesn’t let his resumé go to his head. As a sidekick to FODM’s Bill Elm and also in Howe Gelb’s Giant Sand entourage, it would have been understandable (though probably not pleasurable) had he just let loose and showed us all the things we didn’t want to see. While he does get a little violent with a noise orgy that rides “Cornerstore” out, otherwise his occasionally laconic vocal delivery and fondness for latter Replacements take center. When “Morning Horses” begins its slow descent into pillowy reverb (which is immediately), Semple casts a wink at everyone from Ride to Low to Yo La Tengo, eventually hitching himself to a challenged-radio-signal storm, then easing up on all the effects, and gently fading. His reluctance to go full-throttle does hamper Secretary Bird‘s melodic might; songs with these textures seem more suited to expansion than the relatively brisk 11 songs, 44 minutes they unfold over. Only the rackety “Late Night Cab Ride” and despairing, twangy “Tio” insist upon anything, showing Semple can really shake when he gets some momentum, but is hardly as intimidating as his namesake raptor.
— Steve Forstneger
