Cape May
Central City May Rise Again

By Scott Reid

From Flemish Eye, the label that graced us with Chad Van Gaalen's phenomenal Infiniheart, comes another beautifully diverse set of well produced folk rock mini-epics. Fronted by singer/songwriter Clinton St. John, Central City May Rise Again spends its ten tracks balancing stark folk pop with a series of builds and full-band climaxes — from noise bursts to subdued post-rock — without fully committing to either extreme. Brief overture "Thing (Summer in 6/4 Time)" is the record's most compact, quickly blossoming into a triumphant sing-along, but most of what follows bears the marks of a band pushing themselves beyond their genre's more comfortable confines, resulting in a record too brooding to fully take in with a single spin. Though consequent listens reveal a few clear misses, Central City relentlessly hits back with a solid hook ("Bullmarket Frenzy"), clever arrangement ("On Sunprinted Thumbs") or even a simple, memorable drum pattern (the otherwise lulling, Radiohead-esque "Address the Royal We") to make the trip through St. John's enveloping, mythical tales more than worth the effort. (Flemish Eye)

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The 101 - Green Street
Against All Authority / Common Rider - Against All Authority / Common Rider
Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm
Andy Stochansky - 100
Architecture In Helsinki - In Case We Die
A-Sides - Hello, Hello
Barbie Bankok - Oh My God
Bardo Pond - Cypher Documents I
Ben Lee - Awake is the New Sleep
Black Lipstick - Sincerely, Black Lipstick
Blue Van - The Art of Rolling
Brahman - A Forlorn Hope
The Bravery - The Bravery
Burning Airlines - Identikit
Cardinal Effect - Red Light Carousel
Diary of Dreams - MenschFeind
Dinosaur Jr. - Dinosaur/You’re Living All Over Me/Bug
Dip Leg - The Sympathy without Love
Dismemberment Plan - Emergency and I
Edie Sedgwick - Her Love is Real…But She is Not
Electric Frankenstein - Super Kool
Eric Matthews - Six Kinds of Passion Looking for an Exit
Extra Extra! - We’re Not That Stupid
Fifty Four Square Foot Trampoline - That Simple
French Toast - In a Cave
Gratitude - Gratitude
Gruff Rhys - Yr Atal Genhedlaeth
Guess Who - Let’s Go
Heartless Bastards - Stairs and Elevators
Horrorpops - Hell Yeah!
James McKenty & the Spades - Burning On Fumes
Jens Lekman - The Opposite of Hallelujah
John Wetton - Agenda/Amata
Katray - Burn It!
Killingflaw - Politician
Les Mod’s - Bang Sister Bang
Libertines - Boys in the Band/What Became of the Likely Lads
Longwave - There’s a Fire
Love As Laughter - Laughter’s Fifth
M’s - The M’s
Mando Diao - Hurricane Bar
Mardo - Mardo
Martha Wainwright - Martha Wainwright
Mary Timony - Ex Hex
Matthew Skoller Band - These Kind of Blues!
Men in Fur - Men in Fur
Metropolitan - The Lines They Get Broken
Millencolin - Kingwood
Music A.M. - My City Glittered Like a Breaking Wave
Nagisa Ni Te - Dream Sounds
Neckers - The Neckers
Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
P:ano - Brigadoon
Pennywise - Unknown Road
Perishers - Let There Be Morning
Pilot Scott Tracy - Any City
Pink Razors - Scene Suicide
Pitch Black - This Is the Modern Sound
Plain White T’s - All That We Needed
Recoilers - 2 Years End
Reel Big Fish - We’re Not Happy ‘Til You’re Not Happy
Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch
Rheostatics - The Whale Music Concert, 1992
Righteous Jams - Rage of Discipline
Rocket Summer - Hello, Good Friend
Run Away From the Humans - We Exist
Satelliters - Hashish
Second - Awake for an Hour
Signal Hill Transmission - Tomorrow, the Stars
Skygreen Leopards - Life & Love in Sparrow’s Meadow
Snuff - Six of One, Half Dozen of the Other
Sound of Urchin - The Diamond
Sparkwood - Jalopy Pop
Spitalfield - Stop Doing Bad Things
Summer Lad - Themes: International
Sunburned Hand of the Man - Sunburned Hand of the Man
Upwelling - The Upwelling
Various Artists - A House Full of Friends
Various Artists - Vancouver Complication
Various Artists - The Power of Music
We vs. Death - Postneoliberal Paradise
Weathermen - Deeper
Wednesday 13 - Transylvania 90210
The Weekend - Beatbox My Heartbeat
Weerd Science - Friends and Nervous Breakdowns
Yuppie Pricks - Broker’s Banquet
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