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The Parlor Mob - And You Were A Crow

There are basically two different types of rock music, bearded and not bearded. You can’t mix the two, it’s impossible. The Parlor Mob, though, are determined to give it a try.

Rating: 8

There are basically two different types of rock music, bearded and not bearded. You can’t mix the two, it’s impossible. The Parlor Mob, though, are determined to give it a try. One element of their sound is pure, fresh-faced New Jersey ‘emo’ in the Thursday sense. There are wailing vocals and the kind of ragged, furious exuberance that’s been the hallmark of dozens of bands in the last few years. On top of that though, more prominently, there are guitar riffs that you’re almost forced to call ‘licks’. It seems likely that there are more Led Zeppelin albums in their collections than those of The Cure. ‘And You Were A Crow’, then, should be a bit of a mess but the zigzag between styles works surprisingly well. On the album’s grandiose centrepiece, ‘Tide Of Tears’, it comes across as a less loopy version of The Mars Volta, guitars and vocals competing with each other for hysteria, while ‘Everything You’re Breathing‘ starts out like The White Stripes before veering off towards ZZ Top. The cliché for many of these songs would be ‘sprawling’ but that doesn’t give them credit to a dynamism that, with or without facial fuzz, is hugely effective.

Trevor Baker