Creaturesque

We Say...

Review by Barry Walters

Throw Me the Statue began as a one-man creation from Seattle's Scott Reitherman that gradually morphed into a band by the time Secretly Canadian got its Indiana indie paws on 2007's Moonbeams the following year. This follow-up makes Reitherman's debut sound like a demo — a point hammered home by the way several tracks begin with tick-tock drum machines and twee Casio twinkles, and then explode into saturated aural colors. Of TMtS's four members, three are multi-instrumentalists: The resulting combo swaps singer-songwriter solitude for collective swing.

Rather than baring his characters' souls, Reitherman drapes them in musical metaphors. Opening cut "Waving at the Shore" flaunts a one-fingered piano riff that echoes the Cure's "Close to Me" and "The Lovecats," and its flagrant catchiness acts as a metaphor for the tight grip a willful gal holds on the singer: "You're no good/ At all the right times," a multi-tracked Reitherman whimpers. "Noises" focuses on a woman who avoids confronting herself by juggling multiple boyfriend distractions. Another naggingly simple keyboard doodle ensures that the song sounds as popular as its subject, but this time there's a sad undertow to the surrounding guitars that's reflected in lines like, "See how the vanity puts a claim on your freedom."

Although it's co-produced and mixed by Phil Ek (who applied a similar sonic upgrade for the Shins' second album Chutes Too Narrow), Creaturesque doesn't come across as the product of second-rate clones: TMtS's mix of accessible indie-pop and opaque poetry has its own voice, and it's maturing rapidly. In an age when every other sensitive college grad who can't find a real job peddles self-produced mp3s while the other underemployed segment of the overeducated population blogs about them, Reitherman and pals have already proven that they possess staying power.