Search - Wild Carnation :: Tricycle

A wondeful warm, loving, album!

A. Traverso | Petaluma, CA USA | 06/10/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The lineage of this northern New Jersey trio offers a polite starting point for understanding its sunny songs. Bassist/Vocalist Brenda Sauter played with both the kings of frenetic jangle, 'The Feelies', and the more folksy-leaning 'Speed The Plough'. But Sauter's new band, in which she does all the singing and lyric-writing, could've just as easily been high on the spirit of The Feelies when they wrote 'Tricycle', considering Wild Carnation's affinity for pop highs and jingly guitar sounds like those created by Glenn Mercer and Bill Million. Not to say at all that Wild Carnation is an exact rip-off of the Feelies but the group's sprightly electric/acoustic guitar interplay and driving melodies, along with Sauter's plaintive but firm vocals, that threaten to lift right off the ground in pursuit of the next billowy cloud are very reminiscent of her fellow ex-counterparts Glenn Mercer and Bill Million's tunes. Heartfelt dreamers and lovers of breezy acoustic pop are recommended to check out Wild Carnation's new album Tricycle, it's a crisp, fully-realized and lovely debut that captures the spirit of gorgeous song writing.



The band Wild Carnation was founded by Richard Barnes (Electric and acoustic guitars, organ, bells) and Chris O'Donovan (Drums, percussion, backing vocals) in 1992; after a few months the ex-Feelies Bass player Brenda Sauter (Bass, vocals, acoustic guitar, bells), who is also Richard's wife, joined the group.



They recorded their first album (Tricycle) in 1994: Brenda wrote all the lyrics, while the composition of music has been a collaborative effort amongst all three members of the band."