Pumpkin Buzzard — Love
The albums fifteen tracks find the band going from “Cavern Dwellers” mid-pace & wonky piano, slide guitar weaved descending indie rock plod. Onto the off-kilter bass throb, rudimentary semi jazzy piano tinkle & whiney vocals of “Street World”, which burst into a wavering & unwell Billy Joel type chours. Through to the strummed acoustic guitar, wondering bass & knocking/ crashing drums of the downturned indie folk rock of “Soft Republic”. Onto stop/ start awkward stumbling marching ballad vibe of “Megabird”- which falls somewhere between over done singer song writer plod, country rock & whiney indie boy fare.
For the most part there is a more keener focus on more song like verse/chours structure here. With the often more tuneful & approachable elements of the bands last album “Neuron Beast” come to the fore. That said there are also descending almost free-form jam like moments here too. And of course the bands wavering semi off- key element & off-kilter genre mixers are still in place.
On the whole “Love” is another wonkily rewarding release from Pumpkin Buzzard- sure it’s not as unhinged, jarring or odd as some of the bands back catalogue and it often wonders into more approachable waters, but through-out it still retains that off-kilter & distinctive feeling that is wholly Pumpkin Buzzard.