The Vermont Sugar House - Carlton Gardens
1 Comments Published by Tom on Monday, June 23, 2008 at 19:27.
The Vermont Sugar House are songwriters Martin King and David Platten and sometime collaborator Richard Jones, all formerly of Manchester jangle pop band The Desert Wolves. Carlton Gardens is the follow up to their EP on Cloudberry earlier this year. The label describes it as the band début long player but in reality it is a collection of songs featuring re-recordings of nine year old songs with various versions and mixes also thrown in
The aforementioned Cloudberry EP proved to be a mix and match experience to these ears and the album also follows this path. Whilst I hear elements of Badly Drawn Boy, The Bible, Blue Nile, Lloyd Cole - you know mature jangle pop with a serious side - the songs rarely excite despite their good intentions. Whilst perfectly crafted the majority lack liveliness, charm or something to hold onto with many far outstaying their welcome.
There are exceptions. Braveheart, originally a single in 1999, raises the temperature being full of energy and manages to grab your attention throughout. Other highlights include Solo Living, Walking Distance and Absolutely but these are few a far between with the negatives eventually far outweighing the positives.
The album for me is a huge disappointment mostly being all style and no substance. File under indie pop for the coffee table crowd.
Vermont Sugar House - Walking Distance
Carlton Gardens is out now on Firestation Records and can be picked up in the UK in Rough Trade.
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I have not heard all the tracks of this album, I'm looking forward to get the best of it. I hope it wont turn out to be a disappointment!!! I wish you all the best for your forth coming albums.
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Shapur.
Vermont Drug Treatment