Wait you haven't heard of Algernon Cadwallader? not a big music fan?...well neither had I until a week ago and after discovering them and listening to their second album titled Parrot Files I'm pretty pleased I gave this the time. Algernon Cadwaller are an emo/indie from Philadelphia and going off what they say on their Facebook page, they seem to do everything themselves, book shows, record, mix, produce, everything.
Now to the album, again it's their second album and I have to say its quite a cool album, it's fairly simple in fact, you won't be getting any musicianship award from this group. At the same time though the summery guitar sounds work great (its easier when its a nice day during the reviewing) while the strained vocals are actually pretty cool for this, its like a tone down scream but with the simple arrangement behind it makes it quite cool.
You could say the similarities between the songs could be a problem, but with the album short at just 34 minutes and most songs being less than three minutes long then it doesn't matter as much for me anyway. Favourite tracks on this for me are Preservatives and Glenwood Ave. Preservative summer feel and strained vocals are similar to the rest of the tracks but the lyrics come through a little better in this one, while the change tempo through the middle of the track makes it that bit cooler, plus its solid minimal instrumental breakdown near the end and the nice chorus. Glenwood Ave. has a cool bass line lead the song while its group backing vocals are great and trumpet? during the chorus turn this into a fun track to listen over and over.
Now I do have a problem with this release though, the strained vocals isn't that bad really apart from the difficulty in what he's saying, which is a shame as one of the only songs (Preservatives) where you can make out what he's saying is one of my favourites. I'm not saying he should clean the vocals up completely but perhaps look to get them where people know what he's saying.
Overall a fun solid release from these dude and I feel it's a great summer album and when the proper summer gets back here I'll definitely be giving this a lot more listens then.
Overall Rating: 7.5/10
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