Underneath The Radio
‘Underneath The Radio’ is the second album to be released from gentle indie pop duo Goldenboy. Within the press release that accompanied this CD as it fell through my door, it states, “the twelve songs on ‘Underneath The Radio’ are the sound of life spent in transit • buffeted by changes both emotional and elemental.” I can honestly say it wasn’t until I read this statement that the album began to make sense to me in the elements it exhilarates.
When I first finished listening to each of the tracks on this album I though this review would be very critical and not a very pleasant on to read. Then I read the above statement and my entire perspective on the album changed. Where I thought that the vocals and instrumental sounds didn’t really connect and interact with each other. They seemed as if on two different levels, the vocals being dull and dispassionate and really didn’t fit in well with the diverse sounds being offered. They soon became understood and really in sync with the aim of the album.
With the gentle opening track ‘Icebreaker Blue’ with its piano mid section solo, through to the catchy ‘Summer Of The Evening’, tender ‘Motorbike’ where instrumental sounds really support the track well and slower ‘End Of Forever’ this is just a taste of what the band has on offer. It follows with some of the best tracks the lads have such as ‘I’m Still Down’, the piano focused title track and the horns-led ‘Second Year Of The Day,’ which sounds oddly familiar.
I still believe that there isn’t much emotion or feeling put into the main vocals, but album’s finale ‘Goodbye Erica’ is the exception to all this. This acoustic number has some of the best vocals I had heard since the harmonies play an integral part in making it noticeable. These new vocals seem much more able to change with the track, show emotion and in my opinion should have been given more control over previous songs.
When you listen to this release, please bare in mind the statement “the twelve songs on ‘Underneath The Radio’ are the sound of life spent in transit • buffeted by changes both emotional and elemental,” and hopefully you will be as inspired and open to the tracks as I became.