SILVER SCOOTER - ORLEANS PARISH

Silver Scooter's second full-length album, 1999's Orleans Parish, continues in the style they established with 1997's The Other Palm Springs: catchy, driving indie pop with lyrics alternately sad and hopeful. The drums are restrained and simple, laying a solid foundation on which the guitar and bass build shining melodies. Songs such as "Sleight of Hand" and "Cancer & Wide-Eyed Looks" are both melancholy and catchy, the at times mournful lyrics balanced by the bouncing instrumentation. "Deliver Me Driver" could be a letter from a Silver Scooter fan, the narrator singing, "I love your songs/they're filled with melody and melancholy." This, in fact, is the essence of this Austin band: emotional songs often touching on themes of loss and loneliness, but delivered in such a way that makes these things not seem so bad....

D/L