Release Date: Jan 9, 2012
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock
Record label: City Slang
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An album with songs all named after different kinds of animals may well strike fear into the heart of some, but that’s nothing compared to the dark doubts that lie at this the core of this unusual record. Across these 11 zoologically themed tracks, [b]Cheri MacNeil[/b] tries to build a new belief system, or at least lay some scaffolding over the howling hole left by the loss of her religious faith. It’s done without melodrama and with dark wit on the likes of ‘[b]Mole (Mole)[/b]’, with a bright, fixed-smile brio, like a folksy [a]St Vincent[/a].
Everyone loves a good yarn. A barnstorming story with a head-turning introduction, a gripping middle and a heart-warming resolution to conclude on. While Dear Reader’s Idealistic Animals bounds over the first hurdle with showy pizazz, it quickly loses all cohesion in a swarm of middling ideas and underwhelming songs. The background to Idealistic Animals is almost as convoluted as the record itself but here goes.
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