Throw Me The Statue : Moonbeams

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/throwmethestatue.jpg" alt=" " />As much of a summer record as their ever was, Throw Me The Statue's <em>Moonbeams</em> is one of the most unassuming, upbeat albums you'll find...
7.5 Baskerville Hill
2007 

 As much of a summer record as their ever was, Throw Me The Statue's Moonbeams is one of the most unassuming, upbeat albums you'll find all year. Fifteen pop songs aimed to please the psych scene have geniality pouring out of every beat.  Bouncing beats, fuzzed-out guitars, and lilting vocals build a sunny, but not silly, album.

Seattle's Scott Reitherman is the man behind the controls for Throw Me The Statue, and Moonbeams is both complicated and personally cohesive.  Each song expands beyond the bedroom atmosphere often attributed to mellow solo artists.  The opening track, "Young Sensualists" sets the tone with a digital backyard party beat while a guitar riff and vocals dance smoothly over it.  "Lolita" kicks it up a notch beyond that.   Most of the tracks keep a laid-back, West Coast rock vibe while letting electronics fill in the gaps.

Moonbeams is firmly rock-based but almost effortlessly employs complicated effects.  "About To Walk" is a loose, garagey acoustic shuffle, while the psych-dance "Yucatan Gold" follows.  "Conquering Kids" is a light, slow sonata with effects swirling calmly behind Reitherman's vocals.  "Groundswell" begins as an acoustic jangle then bursts into a dense fanfare.  

One of the coolest things about Moonbeams is how dynamic it is.  Even in its calmest moments, sounds are still blending, and each song offers something different from the one before it.  This goes way beyond the bedroom, out of the backyard, past the beach, and into the mountains.  Moonbeams is as lively an album you'd find this summer. 

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