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Album Reviews
Album Review: Paper Route – Absence (Universal Motown)
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 6 July 2009
Although they hail from Nashville, the home of country music in the United States of course, Paper Route are anything but. This four piece outfit have released three EPs to date on various independent labels but clearly their progress had been tracked by the majors as their debut album has been released by Universal Motown. It’s no surprise that the label has taken a punt upon them because there’s every chance that the band might crossover into mainstream territory. Their music has already appeared on American TV series aimed at teens (‘One Tree Hill’ etc) and they’ve toured with bands who’ve also associated with such shows. What distinguishes them from these run of the mill, superficially ‘indie’ bands, though, is their nascent interest in electronic music. Paper Route claim to be influenced by Air and Boards Of Canada (always a good artist to namecheck!) as much as anything else, and these influences lend themselves well to the band’s signature sound; rich, swirling, epic – precisely the sort of sound that invites a mass audience. ‘Absence’ starts promisingly enough; ‘Enemy Among Us’ begins with a sole piano refrain, then gradually builds into something far more dense and layered; kind of like something The Postal Service could easily record. It’s probably the most ambitious track on the album. Certainly most of the remaining tracks fail to stray from a template of generic indie-rock with electronic window dressing (‘Carousel’, ‘Last Time’). In contrast, ‘No Sudden Revelations’ almost appears to come from nowhere, demonstrating the genuine influence of more esoteric and groundbreaking electronic music. It’s very possible we might hear more of Paper Route; this album’s intended for mass consumption and even though it has creative ambitions, it’s not especially obscure with them. KW
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