weightlifting album review

grapevineculture.com

by rob o'connor
december 11, 2004

Trashcan Sinatras - Weightlifting

Rating 4/5

Irvine, Scotland's Trashcan Sinatras are like fine wine: they must age naturally in order to perform to standard. There is no rushing their collective talent. This is their fourth album in fifteen years and their first since 1996 (A Happy Pocket not released in the US) and it’s the kind of shimmering, melodic triumph that’s worth waiting for. "All the Dark Horses" is a lush atmospheric dreamscape, whereas "Welcome Back" captures the band’s underlying frenetic energy, an attribute often lost in the band’s deep reverb canyons. If this were the 1980s they’d be natural compatriots of the Smiths and Cocteau Twins with their wispy melancholic tendencies and their floating, ethereal vibe. But the group began once that decade was safely packed away and the competition was removed from view, becoming in the process an anachronism, a welcome change of pace and painfully overlooked.

Weightlifting centers on what the group has always done best. Francis Reader can evoke heartbreak simply by opening his mouth and the inclusion of several heart-tugging ballads ("What Women Do to Men," "A Coda") indicate the group is fully aware of these strengths. The guitars can tear off a hard rock solo if the moment calls for one, but mostly it’s about setting a mood and not upsetting the delicate balance of tunes such as "Country Air" and "Got Carried Away" where like a nice hot bath you can suddenly feel as if you’re a million miles from reality and on a cloud located somewhere beyond simple indie-pop heaven and a darker, heavily textured world of its own.

Originally appeared in grapevineculture.com.