The Vestals

Album Review

Minnesotans the Vestals bring an impressively vast array of influences to bear upon their eponymous debut of 2004, baffling any observer as to whether they may qualify as post-punk, post-alternative, post-new wave, or just plain post-everything! Led by eager-to-compete brothers Jeremy and Ben Gordon, the album generally alternates between two quite varied but still rather discernible strategies, and the fact that neither one is the exclusive specialty of any one brother is perhaps the most astonishing thing about them. On the one hand, songs like "Telescope," "Childhood Timeouts," and the engaging "Forever, It's True" combine dreamy strums and laid-back rhythms with an ever-so-creepy haunting feeling — then tops it all with power pop-suited vocals that would do both Cheap Trick and Big Star proud. On the other hand, jaunty tracks like "Three Girls Ago," "Another Way to Kill Me," and "Face the Ground" dive headlong into the sort of bouncy, vocal harmony-rich, neo-psychedelia that fans of Jellyfish or Ben Folds will jump to embrace. Slicing the album in half, "Before the Color Dries" uses lush backing string arrangements for an effect that most would describe as "Eleanor Rigby"-lite, and ending the proceedings, the acoustic lullaby "Someday" strikes a tenuous balance between excessive cheese and heartfelt beauty. In the end, the overarching influence of the Beatles (also splattered all over the memorable "Too Late to Say Goodbye") is impossible to ignore here. Regardless, the Vestals' thoroughly modern flavor allows them to bring an undeniably personal (and wonderfully quirky) voice to these very familiar formulas, making for a vastly enjoyable debut.