The Capitol Years

To pigeonhole The Capitol Years as a Shins meets Byrds hybrid would be unfair. However, a large portion of internet readers still only read a line or two before catchin' a wave to the next website, and despite these poor surf-reading habits, I feel they deserve some information too.

Now that we got that out of the way, it's time to actually give the Capitol Years some credit. Listening to The Capitol Years, I hear a lot of things. Confidence comes to mind. Confidence in their laid-back, post-sock-hop, surf-pop-for-people-who-never-make-it-past-the-fudge-shop-on-the-boardwalk groove. I hear a band that's too cool for school, but still shows up promptly before the bell rings anyway.

Their album Dance Away The Terror does a great job at presenting music that probably could have been written shotgun on the way to Taco Bell, with the right amount of gentle re-verb and strategically placed minor chords to make the music sound cinematic and, occasionally, wistful.

The opening titular track sets the tone of the album with optimistic-yet-lazy vocals and piano/guitar interplay. Immediately following, Revolutions sets the rhythm of the album with a 'spirit-in-the-sky'-recalling frolic which will make you want to hit the beach with your buddies and your oldest frisbee.

From here on out, it's simply tilt-a-whirl and balloon-popping water-gun fun throughout. The standout track, if there is one that dares stick its neck out from the corn-on-the-cob eating summertime shenanigans, is It's Only Loveless. Up-beat as the rest of the album, It's Only Loveless might be the only song on this soundtrack of summer that is mysterious enough to make you feel a hint of drama or reflection. By the same token, it acts as the fulcrum which this album perhaps needs to anchor to, considering that the songs are so light and fluffy that the disk at times is in danger of catching a breeze and floating into the ionosphere.

The care-free fun kicks right back into gear, though, with As The Terror Dances Your Way, and rides the album out to completion. Dance Away the Terror ends quite strongly with It's Not Okay, the sixth of six tunes on this disk that clock in under 3 minutes. You can see the Capitol Years' agenda written all over the track lengths. A free-form jazz exploration this aint. But it seems the 3 minute pop song is Shai Halperin's strength, and he does here what he does best. Arguably, the best songs on the album are the shortest ones, with the exception being It's Only Loveless, which meanders to a seemingly ancient 3:22.

So what is the down side to lazy-day careless-fun pop-rock? Well, nothing really. Only thing for me is, ya see such perfect execution from this fun band who hardly seems to be trying, you gotta wonder what a tad more ambition would do for this talented crew... Ruin them? I doubt it, but I'm no yoda. And it's not my place to demand more compelling music from the up-and-coming catch-pop proletariat, especially when Dance Away The Terror is so damn fun to listen to.


It's Only Loveless on YouTube



The Capitol Years on:
Myspace
Park the Van