Rhinos

Rainbow Quartz might be the home of some of the best power pop around, but for every great band, there’s also a really generic one recycling all the old clichés. Year of the Rhinos falls into the second category of Rainbow Quartz releases, meaning that it is a little hard to listen to the whole album in one sitting. The Rhinos hail from that most musically fertile of the Scandinavian countries Sweden and they have apparently recorded an album with the label’s highest ever "jangle” quotient. While there’s nothing wrong with letting classic bands like the Byrds and the Hollies have an influence on a band’s music, but this takes it a little bit too far. It isn’t quite at the point of lacking an original moment, but it comes close. Naturally it is kind of tough to follow such influences so faithfully and not write a few good songs, but most of the fun on Year of the Rhinos comes from trying to spot the source of every jangly guitar and harmony. And that isn’t really the best reason to recommend a record.