weightlifting album review

prefixmag.com

by sara farr
november, 2004

Trashcan Sinatras - Weightlifting

Rating 4/5

Trashcan Sinatras formed in Glasgow as a cover band, had some success in the early-‘90s their 1990 debut, Cake, and 1993 follow-up, I’ve Seen Everything, and has been toiling in obscurity ever since. But of Weightlifting, the band’s fourth album (the third, 1996’s A Happy Packet, didn’t even hit the United States shores), let me say one thing: "Wow." It’s alternately some of the happiest and most poignant pop I've heard since Guided By Voices released the Hold on Hope single in 1999.

Two songs in particular, "All the Dark Horses" and "What Women Do to Men," are lush and heartfelt. "All the Dark Horses" has some subtle U2-influenced guitar accents, and "Women" is restrained and melancholic. The addition of strings and horns adds beauty and maturity, a fleshed-out and layered sound to already-beautiful melodies and harmonies. This fits nicely along side Mercury Rev and Wilco in my collection.

Originally appeared on prefixmag.com.