Arizona

Having escaped Brooklyn for the cozier confines of Asheville, North Carolina, the band known as Arizona took their retreat a step further by shacking up in a country farmhouse to record Glowing Bird. Little surprise, then, that they wound up with song titles like "Swimming Hole." But what may come as a surprise is how often the band changes direction, from back porch country-rock to twee pop. In the home stretch of "Ghost," they even shift into a churning, menacing instrumental that sounds inspired by industrial or post-rock bands.

Adventurous and expansive, Glowing Bird is not especially accessible–which winds up being part of their appeal. There's plenty of evidence on the album that the band could be another in the long line of sensitive indie-poppers with a knack for melodies that are immediately contagious but fail to linger. Indeed, there are some stretches of Glowing Bird that fall into that league; there are no outright misfires, but a few tracks don't distinguish themselves. Singer Benjamin Morris Wigler bears some resemblance to another Benjamin, Death Cab for Cutie's Mr. Gibbard, singing in a fragile voice about bodies and brains ("Don't Have The Body") or singing plaintively and effectively over a sparse acoustic guitar ("The Fairly Light"). Arizona seems to be aware of these lineages, and they actively subvert them sometimes–as when the Beatles-descended pop of "Otto The Eel" begins with an abrasive, nearly minute-long blast of squealing guitars. The detours add shading to the album–although pop is certainly what Arizona does best in the end, from the eccentric psych-pop narrative "Balloon" to the closing "Whiskey or Wine," which has a sound similar to Earlimart.

—Adam McKibbin
11.25.08