Beautiful Leopard

Mining riffs from post-rock territory, Beautiful Leopard achieve an epic sound. At least one foot is still planted firmly in the alt-rock world; I hear traces of Pavement and Nada Surf amongst the more obvious nods to Radiohead and especially Explosions in the Sky. In fact, that’s pretty much what much of How Long Will It Take? sounds like: an Explosions album with vocals. "The Argument” was co-written and is sung by Valerie Niederoest. This collaboration is an early high-water mark, providing some respite from the frequently monotonous material. Chord sequences and guitar motifs start out promisingly but quickly wear out their welcome, and no amount of ear candy generated by the keyboards can disguise the lack of songwriting at the core of this album. Many songs are memorable in spite of this, or maybe it’s because instead of developing their own sound Beautiful Leopard are putting on a familiar puppet show of their musical heroes.