Search - Hot Puppies :: Under the Crooked Moon

What, they're not from Athens?

Nobody | 04/22/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Difficult to believe this Welsh band is not from some southern lib/lab town like that, they sound like a mix of Kristin Hersh and Siouxsie and the Banshees, and play a kind of clever indie rock that borders on novelty at times, with cheesy organ sounds and B-52 style vocal frills. There's a real foundation of talent here, and a sound that a lot of people are going to like a lot - but not this CD.



As usual, the problem is not the musicianship or the sound but the writing. Songs like "Green Eyeliner" succeed or fail on the central hook, and it's just not there. There's a lot of lines that are off-kilter, like in "Terry", a song that seems like it should be great but where everything is missing a half note somewhere and ends up grating the ears. The other sin they commit, common in a lot of young bands, is varying the tempo too much, something that destroys "Theda Bara", and buries the one phrase that might have been expanded on in a deluge of gear shifts. A consistent beat and a neat sound can make up for songwriting, maybe these two couples can get that far at least, because the basic idea of this band is worth salvaging."