Birds Of Avalon – Self-Titled

I should pre-empt this review with the disclaimer that I’ve never been one to gush over the whole 60’s-based psychedelic movement.  I’ll readily admit that despite a healthy respect for the Beattles, the whole Sgt Pepper thing doesn’t do much for me (don’t tell my wife).  Sure, I have my affinity for modern takes like Robyn Hitchcock, but even then, I enjoy the experimental spirit more than his resemblance.  So it’s with an immediate skepticism and a lifetime of bias that I approach the puffy white clouds of Raleigh, North Carolina’s Birds Of Avalon and their psychedelic self-titled debut.

From where I stand, the eleven-song disc stands in the middle of a very hazy, very common road for this type of thing.  Opener “Xarardeere” floats in softly, sharing vocal duties with a trippy flower child strain amidst the predictable plucking of exotic would-be far-eastern strings.  Nothing in particular stands out as the meandering melody drifts in casually.  As the directionless instrumental solos in follow up “Golden Nose” reinforces, unless you’re soaring on the same cloud as Birds Of Avalon, you won’t find a terribly rewarding payoff.  “Invasion” gets close to some sort of break through, but squanders things by plugging in a chorus that sounds a little too close to many of The Byrds’ creations to break out on its own.  Thankfully the band wakes up a track later for “Polysex Deathblog,” finally speeding up the vocal pace – and making for one of the most rewarding takes on the disc.  But sure enough, the track’s subdued conclusion fades into the steady humming organ of “Road To Olso,” and they return to their old habits.

The disc’s second half offers little improvement.  True, a saxophone surfaces on the Beattles-esque titled “& Moonbeans,” and “Diggi Palace” sounds like the soundtrack to some sort of tribal throne room orgy, but these aren’t new sounds in the context of their genre.  Assuming that the group’s name signifies a tribute to the legendary Avalon Ballroom – a spiritual ground zero for 60’s psychadellia – at the very least their sound matches their intensions.  Problems is though, those intensions aren’t nearly as ambitious as the bands that once called those walls home.  Instead, listeners simply get a psychedelic redux of the past.  Those already riding high on the remnants of the 1960’s might give Birds Of Avalon a shot, but those with little prior investment would be better off staying with the classics.