Bishop Allen
Grrr...
Release Date: Mar 10, 2009
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Record label: Dead Oceans
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Album Review: Grrr... by Bishop Allen
Satisfactory, Based on 7 Critics
Based on rating 7.3/10
Same old pop—not that there’s anything wrong with that“I would choose the darkest horse; that’s the horse I’d ride,” Bishop Allen frontman Justin Rice sings on Grrr...’s opener, “Dimmer.” Judging by his band’s career arc, it’s likely he’s not just spinning a metaphorical yarn about racing animals. Following a couple of acclaimed albums (in 2003 and 2007), an ambitious EP project (one released every month in 2006) and a high-profile film appearance (last year’s Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist), Bishop Allen is a self-made success story. Falling largely within the pleasing indie-pop framework of the band’s previous releases, Grrr...
Based on rating 7/10
Bishop Allen's third album, Grrr..., comes after a couple years of increased visibility for the band, who appeared in Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist and had a song from the last album (2007's Broken String) featured in an ad campaign for Sony. The success hasn't gone to their heads, though, and there are no gospel choirs, guest appearances from members of TV on the Radio, or electro-pop dance beats here. If anything, Grrr...
Based on rating 6/10
Bishop Allen’s last disc, The Broken String, was their “big backstory” album. Nevermind that it was their sophomore disc after a well-received debut, or that it was to be a marquee release for the burgeoning Dead Oceans label. The album was most notably the culmination of the band’s EP year. They released an EP every month for a year, and then picked out and re-recorded the best stuff for The Broken String.
Based on rating 6/10
Thankfully no-one’s dubbing Bishop Allen 'This Year’s Vampire Weekend', because it would be nice to see their jaunty charms discovered slowly, rather than being foisted on us all through adverts and hype. There are hints of flamenco and barbershop in their music, the guitars often sound Hawaiian, and the percussion often includes marimba, but pastiche never swamps any given song. If this means anything to you; they’re like the Bonzo Dog Dada Band without any laugh-out-loud moments (BDDB: genius psychedelic genre parodists from St Martin’s, who inspired Monty Python, and wrote some of their songs).
Based on rating 4/10
It's become almost a truism in our society, particularly when it comes to criticism of any kind. The most basic of stock responses to stagnation and inert irrelevance; “If it ain't broke, don't fix it.” The phrase is a strange type of self-perpetuating looped circuit that is both symptomatic and reinforcing of deep laziness both on the part of bands and critics alike. Bands get at least decent reviews for not really doing anything new or challenging themselves and critics get to doll out “get out of jail free” cards and rehash earlier reviews of the bands work, really just having to change song names.
Based on rating 3.5/10
Recorded and mixed by the excellent Bryce Goggin, Grrr... sounds immaculate: The guitars are sharp. The drums are steady. The harmonies are supple. Its various strings, shakers, and horns captured and layered into a well-spaced, easily listenable whole. After a spin or three, a handful of Grrr...'s ….
Opinion: Very Good
2009 shall be known as the year Brooklyn bands took over the world. Case in point: Bishop Allen. The ambitious duo of former Harvard classmates Justin Rice and Christian Rudder turned their EP-a-month project into 2007's acclaimed label debut, The Broken String. Simply put, Grrr ... is a fantastic ….
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