This half of The Olivia Tremor Control packs twice the punch
Brian | Tampa, Florida United States | 04/09/2001
(4 out of 5 stars)
""The" Bill Doss, who crafted some excellent tunes along with Will Cullen Hart as The Olivia Tremor Control, flexes his songwriting muscles here. The first track, "The Sound's Around You," harks back to 1970s Motown music with its high-pitched vocals and urgent-sounding beat. "The Many Keys to a Reunion" is the EP's only disappointment, basically a drum solo that sounds like Doss is stretching too far to craft different-sounding tunes. The next three tunes, though, make the listener grateful for Doss' stretch for songwriting diversity. "Last Night I Had a Dream" is a tongue-in-cheek, bluegrass-sounding number, and "Future History and the Irrelevance of Time," the EP's best track, is classic mid-tempo psychedelic music, with drugged-out-sounding synthesizers and the same high-pitched vocal as the EP's first song. "Beaconary Words" is alt.country, and gets a bit tedious after a few bars. Nevertheless, if this EP is a sign of things to come from A Sunshine Fix, "The" Bill Doss easily will surpass the impressive achievements of his former band. Keep your eye on this band."