Bodies Of Water know how to put the screws on the listener. They demand a reaction, whether it be disgust, elation, pity, wonderment, or downright hatred. They achieve this polarizing status by jumping head-first into a gene pool that seems to have no lifeguard of late: the quite-possibly-religious, chant-happy, multi-instrumental set inhabited by a gaggle of mega-hyped bands and even more mega-slammed bands. You know the drill: Sufjan, Danielson, The Polyphonic Spree, I’m From Barcelona, and any other group of adults willing to bare their soul before the big JC (or not), robes optional.
Ears Will Pop and Eyes Will Blink is absolutely blatant in everything it does; it’s not a scratch-’n’-sniff sticker, it’s a freshly sliced onion or rotten egg, depending on your tolerance for this borderline-camp cocktail of rock, folk, orchestral pop, and everything in between. Me? I find myself once again straddling the fence, warmed by Bodies Of Water’s finer points -- high-soaring harmonies, precise playing, aggressive arrangements, vehemence -- and chilled to the bone by their too-soft spots -- pretension, annoying spiritual lyrics, indulgence, a chorus or two that leave me with no option but to fantasize about tracking these folks down and killing each and every one of them (slowly), at-times screeching vocals, vehemence.
This puts me in a precarious position, as I’ve listened to Ears Will Pop more in the last month than dozens of overall superior releases and have found songs like “Our Friends Appear Like the Dawn” bubbling up in the back of my mind when I accompany my wife to a boring court date or drive long distances. Does this mean I enjoy it? I honestly couldn’t tell you; I’m leaning more toward the idea of morbid curiosity than fascination, but only time can tell whether an audio quagmire will bloom into full-on agitation or acceptance. For now, I call it a draw, with one caveat: Bodies Of Water, at the very least, are tough to ignore, and that’s not the worst quality in the world if you’re a band striving for attention in a competitive environment. Of course, whether they’re genuinely bombastic or prone to mugging is open to debate at this point.
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