Maybe It’s Reno, Maybe It’s Reno
Featured Album
Ex-Unrest members reunite for a record of quiet majesty.
The lineup on the first seven tracks of Maybe It's Reno's 2008 debut may give old-time indie-pop buffs a little jolt: it's singer/bassist Bridget Cross, guitarist Mark Robinson and drummer Phil Krauth — exactly the same personnel who comprised the classic lineup of Unrest, the DC outift that recorded Imperial f.f.r.r., Perfect Teeth and B.P.M., and ruled the indie-pop roost from 1991 until their 1994 breakup. Reno doesn't quite pick up where Unrest left off, though: that was basically Robinson's band, and this time Cross wrote and sings everything — a lot of these songs sound like voice-and-bass sketches gracefully fleshed out by Robinson and Krauth, who both played the dusty-sounding Mellotron that colors a lot of the album. (The last three tracks were recorded without them.)
Still, there's a close stylistic resemblance to her loping, emotive Unrest showcases, "Vibe Out!" and "June" — Reno's closing voice-and-piano meditation "December" is effectively a sequel to "June." There are hints of Unrest's experimental textural pieces in, for instance, the abstract keyboard instrumental "Lullaby for Sophie," or the way "Feathers and Wings" concludes with loops of handclaps. Most of Cross's songs here hint at some kind of emotional stasis, and so do the arrangements — the songs hover in place for a minute or two at a time, and sometimes follow their own tracks in a circle. The pleasure of the record, though, is hearing the weary, gliding tone of Cross's voice, and her deep-pulsing bass; it's good to have them back.
