Emily

Purveyors of sometimes ethereal genius with moments that can grow wings and fly, or grow horns and charge, depending on their mood / mode. A percussive assault that often puts in mind of Big Star's magisterial "You Can't Have Me" with its runaway optimistic negativity, can switch abruptly into cathedral reverberation, as Emily become immersed in their effervescing style, an iridescent arc of sparkler fiery kisses on the heavens. The former mood / mode often makes think of Ollie Jackson as some sort of Soul brother to Tony France, as Emily metamorphose their brass backed masterworks into Stockholm Monstrous swirls of breathtaking intensity. The latter mode / mood puts in mind of some Scott Walker figure, with Emily swelling with strings and orchestral woodwind into epic proportions, again snatching my breath away, just so. Also, it's the manner in which a song like "Stumble" can respond to both such treatments, can ebb and flow, swell and subside with such immense majesty that it makes me bracket it in some sort of ultimately irrelevant manner with my most revered pop/rock moments. The Jasmine Minks' "Cry For A Man", The Velvet Underground's "Heroin", The Byrds' "Eight Miles High" or Hurrah!'s "Celtic". [SOURCE: BUSSTOPLABEL.COM]