Yeah Right

Album review

A slight alteration in band name from Reading Rainbow to Bleeding Rainbow isn't the only change enacted by the fuzzy Philadelphians on what is either their third or first album, depending on how you're looking at it. Formerly composed of married duo Sarah Everton and Rob Garcia bashing out dual vocals, growly guitar lines, and simple timekeeping drums, with the name change the band expanded to include second guitarist Al Creedon and drummer Greg Frantz. Yeah Right also does away with the softer-edged pop and lighthearted mirth of their earlier songs, opting for a darker sound, heavy on feedback and moody atmospheres. These heavier elements were always hiding in the corners of the band's prior sound, with subtle nods here and there to shoegaze textures buried beneath their franticly noisy pop bursts. Those buried moments are brought into central focus here, with 11 more drawn-out and turbulently shifting tracks that draw on a spectrum of early-'90s influences from the bookish pop of the Simple Machines roster to the lazy wash of My Bloody Valentine's guitar experimentation. MBV becomes a huge reference point on songs like "Losing Touch" and the haunted vocal harmonies on "Shades of Eternal Night." The drifty whammy-bar guitar moments on these songs, while somewhat derivative, make the choruses explode as much as they accentuate the dynamic shifts during various breakdowns. These songs feel as if in constant motion and are some of the best on Yeah Right. Elsewhere, the band's newfound phase of slowed-down tempos and soupy walls of guitar noise tend to drag, rending songs like "You're Not Alone" and "Fall into Your Eyes" more plodding than engaging. The larger lineup doesn't always make for a bigger sound, though the scrappier, homemade feel of earlier days is definitely traded in for a more grown-up approach. The endlessly bending array of guitar tones that make up Yeah Right still sounds raw and unrefined, trying to lock its unwieldy buzzing and blurring in with Everton and Garcia's gift for pop melodies. While the record isn't without its moments, these warring elements often do more to obscure than complement one another.
© Fred Thomas /TiVo