This one's for you Sher...

I know nothing about this band, and you know what? I like it that way.

Truth be told, my friend Sheri has been telling me about how good of a band that Ours, and their debut album Distorted Lullabies, is, for quite some time now. I resisted her praise of this group, always using the excuse that I need to KNOW a band is good before I spend money on them. That is, unless my local library has it. I was actually shocked to see this title pop up in my search. But there it was, and I figured "hey, Sheri usually doesn't have her head up her a*s, I'll give it a whirl." I'm glad I did.

I'm not sure how many permanent members of Ours there is. One look at the album credits will confuse anyone. This guy played guitar on tracks 1 and 3, but this dude played guitar on tracks 5 and 9, and this third guy not only played guitar on track 2, but bass on tracks 7 and 8 as well. I think you get the picture. Truth be told, Ours is one of the few bands where I honestly don't care who the members are, with the exception of one: lead vocalist Jimmy Gnecco (for the record, there are 5 permanent members).

Gnecco has one of those "million dollar voices," you know, the voice that makes you sit up and say to yourself "oh my god, who the hell is that?" He is at once a cross of U2's Bono and Radiohead's Thom Yorke, singing songs that create a sense of freedom in the soul of the listener.

The band chose Steve Lilywhite to produce Distorted Lullabies and it is a prudent one. Lilywhite has an ingenious ear for a hook, and while the songs that appear on Distorted Lullabies aren't exactly radio friendly, some of them do have gorgeous melodic hooks that come from nowhere.

So why the Radiohead line for my title? Simple really. Upon repeated listenings of this disc, I find myself thinking that if Radiohead would drop their ridiculous "let's alienate people" mantra, they would make an album that sounded a lot like this one. Distorted Lullabies is an album that is artistic without being pretentious, enjoyable without being dumbed down.

My favorites? Well, favorite. Because, you see, there is a song called Miseryhead, and then there are the other songs by this band. Miseryhead is such a great tune. Gnecco sounds as if he's going to collapse with the emotion he sings with, and the band behind him creates a swirling rock sound that is not only enjoyable, but rather different from anything found on today's rock radio formats.

I find myself enjoying Here is the Light an awful lot as well. What I think I like most about this track is that it doesn't seem to settle for what it is at the present moment in time; in other words, in some places, there is a very audible string section; in others, there is nothing but guitar, drums and vocals. Needless to say, the beautiful swelling electric guitar that closes out the song is the closest thing I've heard to perfect in a couple of years.

Throughout the course of the album, the band moves in different musical directions, constantly keeping the listener on his/her toes. They move from the opening psychadelic sounds of Fallen Souls into the more straight up rock sounds of Drowning, before exploring acoustic sounds on a song such as Bleed, which has kind of a jumpy start-stop intro that is both freaky and cool at the same time.

Unfortunately, a band that tends to go for so many different textures and styles is bound to slip up here or there, and there are a couple of spots where you can very easily find yourself bored silly by this album (hello Dizzy). But isn't that 90% of all rock releases anyways?

What it comes down to is this: Ours has created an album that is built on song structure, tension between the players, and most important of all, an atmosphere created by the various sounds. It isn't for everyone, there's no doubt about that. But if you found the last two Radiohead records to be too cold and too sterile, then let me present you with this record: the best record Radiohead will never make.





Recommended: Yes