It has been almost 4 years since their debut arrived and blew me and whole lot of you away. "Semester At Sea" from Valley Lodge is no let down from the heights of their first album - not by a long shot. For those who embrace the black and white, read on. A whole bunch of perfect nuggets of solid-gold pop-rock from start to finish, crammed with infectious hooks, bright beats, strong melodies, singalong choruses and vocals that have a very classic Sloan-easque sound to them(as well as the tunes, too!). Other bands? Well, glad you asked: Supergrass(since, say, the late 90`s), lots of The Shazam, and some heaping piles of Matthew Sweet and Brendon Benson, too. There`s backward glances, homages to the past(70s glam, yeah!) and where those creep `n sneak in, you`ll find Who-ish energy and Kinks-y melodies. It`s all here, too. The CD combines raw guitars and gyration-worthy grooves with sharp lyrics and the kind of pop hooks that get lodged in your head in that kind of way where you`ll just be brushing your teeth or something and you`ll notice a song playing over and over again in your head until finally your brush grinds to halt. As a minty white drool makes its way down your chin, it hits you: "Dammit, it`s that Valley Lodge again!" The look on your face will suggest annoyance, but inside you`ll be feeling good, really, really good about it. So who are Valley Lodge? The answer is found below as it includes leaders of two classic pop bands in these quarters. Walt Mink and Uptown Sinclair. It all started when John Kimbrough, formerly of the late, great Minneapolis rock trio Walt Mink, and Dave Hill, who has been known to several as a member of such obscure yet for the most part unstoppable rock bands as Uptown Sinclair, Cobra Verde, and Sons of Elvis, got together on blustery fall afternoon in Dave`s tiny, bathroomless apartment in the Chelsea Hotel to compare home demo recordings, or "demos" as they are known in the trade. They founds some others and here we all go. Pop Perfection and a grade of smooth `n easy and passionate. Extremely Highly Recommended, but of course!
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