Sunwatchers - Oh Yeah? - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Despite (perhaps) being the band's most accessible & melodic work to date, New York quartet Sunwatchers' fourth album arrives in a flurry of notes with the buzzing hum of InchSunwatchers vs. Tooth DecayInch; the title referencing a 1976 album featuring athlete and activist Muhammad Ali. A cheeky nod to be sure, but laced with the utmost reverence. This attitude sums up Sunwatchers' aesthetic in a nutshell; the acknowledgement (typically via the band's irreverent song titles or album art) that the things in life we should take seriously are better faced and understood when disarmed by a wink or nudge. The band may cloak their fiery activism in a jester's outfit, but it does nothing to dull the force of their attack. The one-two punch of InchLove PasteInch & InchBrown IceInch hits next, with the former's tender opening melody punctuated by exuberant InchWOO!Inchs while the latter launches into an urgent, stuttering march that utilizes an effective musical wind-up and , ratcheting up a ferocious intensity across it's near six minute runtime. InchThee Worm StoreInch closes out the first side, beginning with a lumbering synth growl, until it picks up speed and ends as a frantic noisy free-for-all. Side two strides forth with InchThe ConchInch, an obvious 'Lord of The Flies' reference, and a delicious subversion of the idea of a Inchhero's anthemInch weighted down by the trappings of tribalism. The album's showstopper however is InchThe Earthsized ThumbInch, the near twenty-minute closing track. Guitarist Jim McHugh lays down a hypnotic Saharan guitar melody as the rest of the band ushers themselves in one by one over the tune's distinct musical movements, a cosmic InchQuick OneInch for all the heads perhaps? The album's title InchOh Yeah?Inch is at once an homage to Mingus, Thee Oh Sees' album InchHelpInch (whose Brigid Dawson hand-sewed the tapestry adorning the album's