Austin Sound

“If time was a river you wear like a sleeve, it’s sewn with a thread of hope so short you’d hardly believe,” sings Shawn Jones, a faint hint of sarcasm in his voice, though not enough to overcome the imagery of the phrase itself. Jones may very well be the thread that holds in the loose stitching of the album’s conflicting themes – everything from Pulling Up Floors-style emotional confessions to dark cynical humor – but also incorporates that small but distinct glimmer of “hope.” The space of the full-length allows the themes and instrumentation that were so densely crammed into the Lovely Sparrows debut Pulling Up Floors, Pouring on (New) Paint EP to diffuse and develop more distinctly, though hardly in isolation. The album is Jones at his best, refusing to allow his listeners to take his heart’s complaints too seriously, but reminding us behind every good joke is a stark reality.

The long awaited follow-up to the Lovely Sparrows’ spectacular 2006 EP, Pulling Up Floors, Pouring on (New) Paint, will be released next month on Abandoned Love Records. The debut LP, titled Bury the Cynics, is equally lush, but lead Sparrow Shawn Jones seemed to have focused his vision much more clearly and shed some of the depressive weight of the EP. Bury the Cynics is still rife with a dark and dramatic humor, though, some of which is evident in the new video for the song “Year of the Dog.”

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Artist: The Lovely Sparrows
Label: Abandoned Love
Genre: Indie Pop

If I was asked to peg an album from a local act as a possible break out effort it would certainly be The Lovely Sparrows upcoming debut full length, Bury The Cynics. Why them? Because the Pulling Up Floors, Pouring On (New) Paint EP was stellar enough to give me confidence and high hopes for anything they’re planning on putting out.