There’s something distinctly folky about the casual strut of the strings in the opening bars of Bard’s Flying Vessel’s “Cut in Half,” and yet the electricity of the melody – and, for that matter, the instrument it originates from – grounds the foundation of this song in utter neurosis. The guitar parts here are restless and jagged, but they’re boxed in by a beat that feels as brilliantly heaven-sent as what we find in “(In Love With) The Bully.” Balance is a prominent theme in I, this Bostonian indie rock outfit’s new album, which is rather ironic considering how beautifully they manipulate the deliberately uneven within this tracklist.
LINK TREE: https://linktr.ee/bardsflyingvessel
From the rather conservatively buoyant “Eyes Are Held” to the more boisterous garage rock of “Innkeeper” and outright Detroit-esque “Birdhouse,” there’s a bohemian sensibility to the structure of the music in this LP that reminds me of Green Pajamas’ Indian Winter and the forgotten gems of Quicksilver Messenger Service’s discography. There’s a desire to live in two worlds here – the angst of grungy, unforgiving teenage youth and the freedom of a soul-searching, courthouse-occupying twentysomething, and it’s the struggle to reconcile the contrast between these worlds that produces some of the most relatable emotionality in I.
Bard’s Flying Vessel isn’t all amplifier fuzz and blistering pessimism behind the mic; “Antonio Bay” solidifies itself as the perfect post-hipster closing track about thirty seconds into its five-minute running time with little more than a gentle string harmony. It’s similar to the way “Marble Horse” exploits the same organic guitar chemistry that connects us to the emotional narrative of the record early on in “Pavilion,” tethering themes both poetic and sonic the same to multiple tracks much in the way you’d hear in a progressive rock effort (minus the cheesiness, of course).
A stony melodic undertow makes a pressurized “The Jetty” so much smoother in tone than it would have been sporting the same psychedelic crunch we encounter in “Melting Plastic,” and although a lot of the same songwriting aesthetics can be found from one song to the next in I, there’s scarcely an instance in which Bard’s Flying Vessel can be caught recycling anything – even something as minute as a groove. There’s too much personality in “Cut in Half,” “Back to Being,” “Eyes Are Held” and “Birdhouse” to allow for instrumental or lyrical overlap; continuity is developed through unique expressions in this LP, which is more than can be said for the majority of this band’s competition this fall.
BANDCAMP: https://bards-flying-vessel.bandcamp.com/
Overall, Bard’s Flying Vessel delivers one of the more superbly creative treats I’ve reviewed in the past couple of months in I, and barring any urbane output from their New England peers in the next couple of months I think it’s safe to say they’re sitting on the best record to debut out of their scene in the latter half of 2021. Boston’s got a hot indie rock culture at the moment, but I can’t say I’ve been listening to anyone quite as provocative in style and execution as this crew is.
Chadwick Easton