The Eyelids - Or - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

2014 debut album from the Alt-Rock band. With 13 songs, most of them clocking in at less than 2-1/2 minutes, 854 is full of what Eyelids (members of Decemberists, Boston Spaceships, Elliot Smith Band, Damien Jurado Band, Stephen Malkmus Band) describes as 'sweet melodies and bummer vibes.'

Portland, OR's Eyelids, one of rock's best-kept secrets, step firmly out from the shadow cast by the band members' pedigrees earned from time spent in GBV, Decemberists, The Jicks and Elliott Smith. Produced by Peter Buck of REM and featuring lyrics written by poet and frequent Tim Buckley collaborator Larry Beckett, The album features a bountiful cacophony of gorgeously shimmering riffs and songs so delectably crafted that all who value the electric guitar as a source of joy should find themselves awash in goosebumps once under this record's spell. A testament to rock's remaining vitality as an art form, Eyelids' fourth album finds the outfit as both stewards of a classic sound (Big Star and REM disciples will fall hard for this project) and accomplished artists propelling their craft to thrilling new heights. The Accidental Falls casts a hypnotic spell over the listener and triumphantly reminds us, hearts fully on sleeves, why we fell in love with rock n roll in the first place.

Eyelids' new album, A Colossal Waste of Light, does an excellent job of framing the quintet as one of today's most compelling purveyors of lopsided guitar pop workouts and earworm-laden vocal melodies. It also proves that great guitar pop can still evoke favorites from a glorious past - the penetrating moodiness of XTC's Black Sea, or R.E.M.'s Fables of the Reconstruction, comes to mind - while refusing to waste time on idle nostalgia. On their 4th full-length album (but 17th vinyl offering if you include previous 7Inchs and EPs) the Portland, OR band also rediscover the beauty of firsts. A Colossal Waste of Light marks the first time the band wrote songs remotely (Inchit ended up being fun & weird to send out a very simple version of a song and see who came back first with another part for itInch, John Moen looks back), their first reunion at the Destination Universe studio post-isolation, and their first batch of melodious new tunes since The Accidental Falls, the band's 2020 project with poet, lyricist and Tim Buckley collaborator Larry Beckett (an extra-ordinary pairing that allowed Eyelids' two frontmen/tunesmiths, Chris Slusarenko and John Moen, to find a new, multilayered appreciation for the art of songcraft).