The Whitsundays are an Edmonton-based beat band named, I can only assume, after the Christian feast of Pentecost. Or perhaps it is a reference to the group of islands off the coast of Queensland, Australia. If that's the case, the quartet draws its inspiration a few thousand miles west of their namesake’s reef, mapping their sound directly from the initial British invasion and its influential aftermath that spread throughout the continental United States a year or two after 1965. With one listen, classification is as easy as a five-finger exercise, but that is fortunately what makes The Whitsundays unique -- if that computes. While others blatantly clone themselves after Beatle-booted bands from years gone by and spout nonsense about doing something that has never been done before, these boys from Canada’s “City of Champions” seem content to inject new, but old, blood into the aging body by emulating the more mild-mannered acts of that golden decade to a tee.
There are high points and a couple of anomalies, too. “It Must Be Me” will have those well-versed in Odessey and Oracle chuckling. It's a great song that out-Zombies The Zombies with its fey Colin Blunstone imitation (done nicely by singer Paul Arnusch, by the way) and a pinched vocal break. Many of the tracks on The Whitsundays, like “Sorry James” and “The Ways of the Sweet Talking Boys,” are sophisticated tunes that toss more than a nod in the direction of that same under-appreciated organ-driven British quintet, but also to The Left Banke (minus the gorgeous “baroque” string arrangements) and the California sunshine pop of The Beach Boys or Sagittarius. “Antisocial” throws a curve by sounding like The Buzzcocks, although the organ lines are all “Double Shot of My Baby's Love” by The Swinging Medallions.
By far the longest song on the album, “Bring it On Home” delivers a macabre molasses lop that is a step or 10 off-pace from the rest of the album, glimpsing into an unexpected side to the band. The song sounds a bit like a Lilys slow teaser, or even like Radiohead, back when Thom Yorke had a head full of ridiculous yellow hair. At the risk of sounding too much like a 12-year-old boy, the song is real neat too. I cannot remember the last time I heard the odd combination of kerplunking keys, a sax solo, and the presence of cutie-pie girl and groaning monster back-up vocals in a song. (Then again, I am not a connoisseur of something like The B-52s, so I may be off the mark on this point.) The closer, “Whitsunday Morning Theme,” is an ultra-pleasant instrumental that would have made a great diversion somewhere higher up in the tracklist, but sounds lovely closing out the album on a quiet, mellow note.
One bone of contention would be Arnusch’s voice. It is reliable and adequate for The Whitsundays’ style of vintage pop, but instead of dropping a dose of emotion anywhere on the album, Arnusch plays it cool à la Stone Roses’ Ian Brown. (In fact, “Falling Over” sounds remarkably like “Made of Stone” in all aspects, except that there is a cute Doug Organ organ break where one of John Squire’s trademark solos should be.) There are more wistful numbers on the album than full-tilt boogies or raves, so the frontman barfing out a low growl or spitting a blood curdling scream is probably out of the question. I would definitely welcome quiet-but-vulgar displays of some passion though. Ian Brown does not have the chops to do it; I think Arnusch secretly does.
The Whitsundays is a good debut, but in fairness, it sounds like thousands of like-minded garage/psych-pop records. That is no slight, it is fact. (Five years ago, there were five or six acts peddling the same kind of sound around my fairly small hometown, and I am sure every one of you reading this can say the same about your city’s scene.) But when you are sticking to time-tested, conventional songwriting, going for a specific, dated feel, and recording with an array of vintage gear (courtesy of Arnusch), that’s hardly the point. It is what it is. There are tons of albums like The Whitsundays, but if you are a dedicated follower of this sort of thing, you should buy it and enjoy it.
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