The Boxer Rebellion - The Cold Still

The Boxer Rebellion are that most loathed of things - a mainstream indie band - who arrive, fully formed, like Topsy, sounding - according to various critics, like a suitable melange of Coldplay, Radiohead, and, yes, David Gray - as well, as (perhaps alarmingly), often as falsettoish as A-ha. The Cold Still, is, for all that, a very good album (the for all that being its latent mediocrity) - though well-made pop-rock in the Kings of Leon vein is not all bad at all.

Though I agree with The Replacements that putting a foot wrong makes the song work more authentically, there's a pleasure to be had in the manipulative sonic entertainments The Boxer Rebellion offers here. I am not sure what will happen to them, but they could break the States big. I do love "Step Out of the Car" as a phrase to use for a song title - the video being curiously homoerotic in a rather non-descript way. The lead singer is, from the looks of things, movie star handsome. That shouldn't hurt a bit.

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E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

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