Bodies Of Water preview

Bodies Of Water
Schubas, Chicago
Thursday, August 7, 2008

Call them a darker, more sinister companion to England’s the Magic Numbers, minus the whole brother/sister pairing, sunshine-on-your-shoulders attitude masking deeper scars.

Los Angeles-based Bodies Of Water dazzle on A Certain Feeling (Secretly Canadian), the band’s second full-length album. Comprising husband-and-wife team David and Meredith Metcalf and close friends Kyle Gladden and Jessie Conklin, the foursome mix wildly temperamental atmospherics and shady harmonies into a smorgasbord of instantly attractive songs — the kind that sabotage conversations when played over car speakers. One by one, passengers stop talking and start listening as sounding horns (trumpets and trombones to be exact) frame the powerful all-at-once singing favored by the group.

Influences abound on A Certain Feeling with gospel and tropicalia taking the lead, but the orchestral indie rock of Arcade Fire flitters throughout the album. “Only You” pares down the comparisons, and its languid coursing mirrors the trance-inducing rhythm of the sea. “Darling, Be Here” is spot-on the album’s epic centerpiece, plodding and droning on in a way that eliminates the negative connotations usually attached to those descriptions. Album opener “Gold, Tan, Peach, And Grey” jumps out of the gate with the misguided exuberance of kindergarteners.

Port O’Brien and Audrye Sessions open.

— Janine Schaults

Click here to download “Under The Pines.”

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly