Earlimart

It's hard to find fault with SoCal quasi-duo Earlimart: Aaron Espinoza and partner Ariana Murray's songwriting is workmanlike, and Espinoza's delivery is sincere—his sound the very definition restrained, folky indie rock. And yet, on Mentor Tormentor, Earlimart's first album since 2004's Treble & Tremble, the band can't seem to move beyond its well-worn sound. The mild deviations that are present on Tormentor are predictable (pumped-up production flourishes, strings, a choir), and the songs, while often catchy, are so in line with their genre as to barely make an impression.

Album opener "Fakey Fake" matches a menacing acoustic guitar riff to a sudden explosion at the halfway point: handclaps, feedback and extra drum kits kick in, but Espinoza's Elliott Smith-lite whisper and unremarkable lyrics ("I was the fake and you were the fool / We'll never be clean, you know what I mean") just don't carry the charisma to justify the bombast. The record's better tracks—the Murray-sung "Happy Alone" and the cinematic "Answers & Questions"—are hummable, but again, hindered by the band's limited musical means.

Earlimart's predecessors Grandaddy and Sparklehorse augmented their low-key charm with evocative lyrics and stylistic switch-hitting. Though clearly aware of their place within that tradition, Earlimart fall just short of the creative idiosyncracy needed to make their music more than the textbook trappings of their chosen genre.

—Todd Goldstein
08.15.07