The Minders - It's A Bright, Guilty World

Genre rock Publisher Future Farmer External Links Official The Minders Website Official Future Farmer Records Website

Jicks bassist Joanna Bohme was a Minder at one point; the Minders are part of the so-called "Elephant 6 collective," a loosely-strung group of backward-looking bands anchored in Athens, GA. The first fact gave me hope that It's A Bright Guilty World might be worth my time; the second fact caused said hope to self-destruct. See, the Jicks - former Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus's current house band - have turned out three wonky, whacked, and/or wanky platters of lowered-platform blooze, while the Elephant 6ers, who made a significant retro mark in the 1990s, have served up little more than diminishing returns this decade (Of Montreal and I Am The World Trade Center excepted).

It's a surprising pleasure, then, to be able to report that the Minders have done pretty darn good here. Not Circulatory System astonishing or Neutral Milk Hotel affecting, but maybe Essex Green or High Water Marks decent, i.e. worthwhile enough to preclude pawning it off at a used-CD emporium - which, in an anti-scene scene where every member, no matter how perpheral, spearheads at least a couple of records, is really saying something.

The general sonic thrust is Guided By Voices-meets-Spoon at a British-invasion listening party, with a handful of tasty detours. So on gentle quickie opener "There Goes My Formula!" frontman Martyn Leaper quietly sings in Pollard-face over warm acoustic kindling but then "Don't You Stop" swings in with cartoon pop synths, drums, and more strident vocalizations, a warm-up for the out-and-out lo-fi exuberance of the "dude-I'm-a-dad!" nugget "Accidental Joy," with its New Wave yo-yo-ing keybs and tastefully skronk-y ax leads. "In the Middle of Your Love" takes another tack entirely, as Leaper does a restrained Phil Collins impression behind a sample of flowing water with only the soft bleat of an organ and a few melancholy piano scales to hang onto; "Remember, Remember," on the other hand, feels like a muted Zombies homage, all hushed and hunched, brushed with violin and sprinkled with fractured drops of ivory.