The Morning Benders - Talking Through Tin Cans

Genre indie-pop Publisher + 1 Records External Links The Morning Benders Website The Morning Benders MySpace Page

Among the slew of new music, it’s rare to find a young band who can recall their idols without coming off as a cheap copy; however, with their debut full-length album, the Morning Benders have developed a heavily influenced sound that is absolutely their own. On Talking Through Tin Cans, the Bay-Area quartet manage to be catchy and fun without seeming vacant, and they seem to make good use of their influences.

Talking Through Tin Cans starts out strong with the jangly “Damnit Anna,” a Beatles-circa-Rubber Soul sort of tune that has singer Chris Chu wailing and will surely have you dancing. Drummer Julian Harmon provides solid, interesting drums throughout -- especially on “Loose Change,” whose beat is a little “George of the Jungle” without being campy or too harsh against Chu’s boyish voice.

By far one of the best songs on the album is the pleasantly addictive “Patient Patient,” in which Chu repeatedly beseeches his “Doctor Doctor” to prescribe him some cure for his love. Then, “Crosseyed” sounds like the musical lovechild of Ben Kweller and the Shins, with its melodic sort of storytelling and seemingly simple chorus that gives you just an inkling that they’re up to something deeper. The same feeling is conveyed in the single “Waiting for a War,” another one of the clear standouts on the album. Against a background of keyboards and softly screaming guitars lays the album’s oddly universal early-twenty-something angst that is summed up by the line “I’m tired of living like I’m dying while the world is moving on.” With its catchy chorus and crescendo to a sudden end, you’ll surely be playing this one over and over.

Talking Through Tin Cans isn’t just catchy tunes that get you moving; there are a couple of songs that show a different side, one being “Heavy Hearts,” which starts out with acoustic guitar and Chu’s soft humming vocals that recall Thom Yorke’s on Pablo Honey. That is, until the last minute of the song when the drums and back-up “Woah, Woahs" come in and the personal sadness becomes a choral lament. From here, the album gets darker, relying more heavily on Tim Or’s bass lines and getting more out of Joe Ferrell’s guitaring (and more of Chu’s sometimes straining vocals). “Wasted Time” and “Chasing a Ghost” are heavy enough to provide a deeper substance to the album, but are not so dark that they seem out of place among the more musically upbeat tracks.

With lines like “Now it’s raining so hard / I can’t see my own tears / You’re giving me reason / To put trust in my fears,” it’s hard to know whether the inspiration from this album came from a bad break up or the general uneasiness and uncertainty of this generation. It doesn’t matter; whatever the underlying meaning of the lyrics, Talking Through Tin Cans is a great album. It’s not overloaded with feigned profundity that demands deep analysis, but it does demand repeat plays. The Morning Benders have succeeded in making an album that manages to be addictive without being annoying; an album that explores different sounds while maintaining it's continuity.