Album Review: Combinations by Eisley

Eisley gets more ambitious with each EP and album, as well they should: Combinations is the band's second album, but they recorded it when they were barely in their twenties -- a time when growth and change aren't just natural, they're required. This set of songs reflects Eisley's evolution; they sound more grown-up and maybe a shade less playful than Room Noises and the band's EPs, but they keep the uniqueness that made Eisley worth hearing in the first place. Combinations gets off to a literally rocky start with "Many Funerals," which begins with a moody sea shanty-like melody that swells into charging choruses.

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Eisley consists of four towheaded Texas siblings and their teen cousin, but unlike stereotypical family bands, their music is neither pathologically cheery nor intrinsically creepy. Rather, on Combinations, their second CD, the DuPree kids expand their sound — contrasting soaring, Radiohead-aping vocals with big-bottomed prog-rock grooves. Singer Sherri has a flirtatious soprano able to glide from tunes about body snatching (”Invasion”) to tales of body holding (”I Could Be There for You”).

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