Birds & Batteries – Panorama

Birds & Batteries has definitely left a large impression on my year in music. I’ve seen the San Fransico based band twice, loved their EP Up To No Good, and now I’m currently playing their new record Panorama on repeat. This is not to mention the constant write ups on several of the blogs I follow, specifically some non stop plugging by The Bay Bridged. The chunk the band has taken out of my musical time has been quite welcome and hopefully I’ll be able to add several more spins and at least one more concert before the year is up. I know this review will certainly convince you to buy the record (ha), but if you get a chance to see them live do it, you will not be disappointed.

The band’s sound seems almost precisely geared to the exact things that I enjoy: a diverse sound that ranges from funky to something more Andrew Bird; a few quirky flourishes here and there; and some haunting, sincere lyrics. If you add some slide guitar to that, of which there is plenty, you’ve got a formula that is gonna stick to my ribs like Baconase. After an epic start off with “Panorama” the album hits a funky stride with “A Million People” and “Raincheck”, my personal favorite. “We’re An Industry” brings it down a bit as the album hit’s it’s halfway mark transitioning into the glockenspiel on ”Another Inferno”, my favorite moment on the album. As the album closes out “The Villain” comes pumping out with quite possibly one of my favorite synth lines of all time, it’s seriously infections or at least it was on the previous EP mix and live, sigh. “Some Hypnotic Flash” closes things out with haunting guitars and orchestral-heavy outro finish out the album quite admirably. Is it apparent that I really liked this album yet?

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