REVIEW: Butterflies Of Love, How To Know the Butterflies Of
Love
- Andrew Duncan
Beginning in the late '80s and seeping into the early '90s, post punk and new wave had died and reincarnated into what was contrived as college rock. Besides the obvious bands that defined the genre, others could have been stylistically classified simply by their band name. A House passed the college rock test as did Crowded House. House Of Love also fit the mold - can you see where I am heading?
This leads to the year 2000 and a five piece band from New Haven, Connecticut called Butterflies Of Love. Where does this play in the whole scheme of things? The name paints an '80s paisley-college-rock collage of rich sound textures and words of shyness and abandonment. But let's not judge a book by its cover, or a band by its name ... or however you want to characterize it. It's time to take a gander.
Sounding more like the band hails from Bristol than New Haven, How To Know has the sadness of The Cure's Seventeen Seconds and the sarcasm of Blur. However the music does come closer to Slowdive than Morrissey's prancing rhythms. The band softly sculpts beautiful music with sincere songwriting that leads to a type of music that is rarely heard and sadly missed.
Headed by duo Daniel and Jeffrey Greene - with a slew of people helping them out - there are enough instruments on this album to lead an orchestra. "Mt. Everest" resembles a drugged up Portostatic playing Velvet Underground tunes - a remarkable combination that explodes with echoing beauty. "Floating" sounds like The Mighty Lemon Drops in an indie rock world.
The album drags into a doldrum with "Love May Be Possible," depicting a scenario of a burned-out bar band and "Rob A Bank" marks the sobering feeling when the bartender yells out "last call."
The disc picks back up with the poppy "Amethyst." (how can one pass up such great one liners as "She wears my lucky charms, she's got tattoos on her arms"), and ends with a brief lullaby "Leaving When I'm Done Drinking." That last drink was a quick one.
More information is available at http://www.secretsounds.com
