The Kingsbury Manx
You'll hear the precedent for this album in the dustiest corners of Simon & Garfunkel'sBookends, in the tender devotionals of the Beach Boys'Pet Sounds, and on the sun-baked gospel-soul of Lambchop'sNixon. Idle comparisons maybe, but it's true that the Kingsbury Manx talk louder through their songs than through contrived image. The best kept secret of Chapel Hill, North Carolina--so much so that when they emerged with this debut album, local commentators refused to believe that it was their work--the Kingsbury Manx are four retiring college graduates who write songs that invigorate the rock form in a way unheard since Built to Spill'sPerfect from Now On. This is an album of exquisite moments--check the spine-tingling slide-guitar whirl of "Blue Eurasians," the gorgeous a cappella glide of "Hawaii in Ten Seconds," and frontman Kenneth Stephenson's emotive choral pleas on "Piss Diary." WhileThe Kingsbury Manxis not a stone-cold classic, this is merely the springtime of their existence. A glorious future beckons.--Louis Pattison