Peel

Rate It! Avg: 4.0 (19 ratings)
Peel album cover
Album Information

Total Tracks: 11   Total Length: 35:12

eMusic Review 0

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Lucy O'Brien

eMusic Contributor

04.22.11
A debut packed with ideas and ambition.
2007 | Label: Peek-A-Boo Records

Hailing from Austin, Texas, Peel combine loose rhythms with layers of psych guitar, and their debut is packed with ideas and ambition. Hinged around Josh Permenter's smart, quirky lyrics and keyboardist Allison Moore's melodic flourishes, these songs rock with a full-tilt experimental energy. Stylistically, they're all over the lot: Krautrock-inspired on the epic "Bells," kicking out the Roxy Music-style jams on "Moxie Blues," hinting at ’70s-vintage Stones in the frustrated drawl of "Sliding Doors." Then there's the two-minute blast of "Oxford" and a hit of raucous, speed-fuelled rigour in "In the City" (“So long to those dusty roads,” they yell). Permenter sings of recovering from love gone wrong, ditching those slacker blues and getting out to make a mark on the world. Judging by the glorious freak-out 'til fade of "Navy Waves," Peel are set to do just that.

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i love this album

johnjosephbachir

this album is a lot of fun. it has a wide variety of styles, and the tracks all play along with one another. it's clearly made by people who love music, but it doesn't take itself too seriously.

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Highly recommended

mandrake

Peel is a fantastic new band from Austin. I picked up their cd on a whim a few weeks ago and its fantastic. By no means is the album perfect or even superb but it's definitely a solid debut. PS. Don't be mislead by the 'metal' lists under 'Member Playists'. Peel is anything but.

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They Say All Music Guide

In the tradition of the Pixies and Pavement, Austin noise-pop quartet Peel’s debut album subverts its catchy pop tunes with slatherings of lo-fi tape grot, feedback, tape loops and needling keyboards in the manner of Brian Eno’s contributions to early Roxy Music. Singing guitarists Josh Permenter and Dakota Smith have the whole Stephen Malkmus can’t-be-bothered mumble down cold, and songs like “Bells” and “Workers, Wake Up!” have the lysergic pop rush of classic Elephant 6 tunes. The thing is, while the band’s antecedents and influences could not possibly be more obvious — mention should also be made of Chris Knox, both solo and with the Tall Dwarfs — these 11 songs are so charming in their exuberance and playfulness that charges of lack of originality are pretty much beside the point. Perhaps their next album will sound more like Peel and less like a giddy mishmash of the average aging hipster thirty-something’s iPod, but in the meantime, this is a fun listen despite its flaws. – Stewart Mason

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