Website: Tilly & The Wall
The Inside Pulse:
Bright Eyes’ frontman Conor Oberst made up this label called Team Love. For a label with this name, a band worthy of that credo had to be the flagship. Tilly & The Wall are absolutely that band. Using a tap dancer instead of a percussionist, using three singers who all play tamborine and guitar and piano, the charm is immediately there. What’s important with this band isn’t their gimmick, however, it’s their attitude. They want you to think of that moment when you fell in love with everything at once. Their music is a spasm of happiness so flurrious that you can’t help but feel a little sad from it, knowing that we don’t ultimately live in the same world as Tilly and her wall.
Positives:
The only moments you won’t be tapping your foot is during the songs where it’s just more important to cuddle and kiss. This music makes your body move in directions it probably shouldn’t. It’s really unlike anything else out there. The tap dancer thing gives it a groove most dance albums can’t handle, and the three-headed singing makes sure it never gets predictable and tedious. Plus, the lyrics are freakishly smart. They’re going for an ideal world with perfect love, perfect sadness, and perfect passion. They want you to run down the street at full speed with all of your friends. And you will. At least you’ll want to.
Negatives:
They need to hire the producer that did the Dresden Dolls album this time around. Tilly & the Wall would sound 100% better without the fuzz and the distance. I know that’s a distinguished quality in indie rock, but this band really doesn’t need that layer of dirt on their music.
Cross-breed:
The Dance songs from Broken Social Scene with Junior Senior with Bright Eyes, mixed affectionately with the frustration of living in a world that just doesn’t love nearly enough.
Reason To Buy:
You’d like to be happier. Even if this album doesn’t turn you into a cast member of “Everyone Says I Love You”, you’ll appreciate their attempt. I mean, who can fault five kids who just want you to fall in love with the person next to you, and then run, run, run?
