The Chillbumps’ Welcome to Our Arbor Day Fair was released over three decades ago but sounds like it could have been written and recorded yesterday. It was uncommon, despite REM, for a proto-alternative act to emerge out of the Deep South, but the Alabama five-member outfit never got the memo. Instead, the five one-time Auburn University students began their brief but memorable initial run playing cover songs before turning their hands to original compositions. The ten tracks included on the band’s sole album are unabashed about demonstrating The Chillbumps’ influences, but it also shows a unit that had found a distinctive voice.
“Function Junction” has a nice striding guitar riff and overall pace, but the chorus should hit harder. There are standout moments in the opener, however, as the band establishes the interplay between guitarists Mark Osborne and Heath Cobb here. Their six-string partnership is a key element in the album’s success. Another highlight and arguably one of the band’s signatures are the vocal harmonies. Lead singer David Borel has a flexible, yet always convincing, voice and the recurring backing vocals blend well with his timbre.
“Happy Bass Riff” is pure pop rock bliss. Bassist Jeff Niebuhr’s playing lives up to its billing as the unostentatious hop in his playing sparkles, but the band fills out the remainder with the same light. This is one of the album’s best moments, fully realized songwriting, and perhaps only lacking a little added oomph in the production, if that. “Alice” is another high point as Borel’s powers of dramatization are revealed. He gives attention-grabbing life to the song’s narrative and central character – undoubtedly helped a great deal by a lyric that seldom slides into cliché.
The album’s longest track, running a hair over four minutes, is “Lost and Found”. New Wave and punk influences are strong here but never sound like slavish imitations. The small “bursts” of energy the band adds to the chorus is a great understated move and the guitar solos ramp things up even higher. The production should highlight the rhythm section more as Niebuhr’s bass playing alongside drummer Tim Bryant is fantastic from start to finish.
“Ashes” opens with a single repeating guitar note before Niebuhr, the second guitar, and Bryant joins in. It’s a lean stripped-down rocker relying on a minimalist sound that sticks around as one of the album’s more plaintive tracks. The chorus is especially great. There’s a strong singer/songwriter flavor with this cut unlike any of its predecessors. “Lisbon Tress” is another somewhat melancholy mid-tempo track with even a rootsy vibe coming through in the lead guitar. Borel’s outstanding emotive talents are well-served in such a setting.
Acoustic guitars and some studio trickery are the most glaring additions to the album when we come to its final song. “Human Race” finds The Chillbumps delivering a bit of spaced-out alt-rock with exotic instrumentation and the hint of impending chaos darkening the song. It’s a wild card ending to a diverse collection. A second or perhaps third album from The Chillbumps would have found the band, unquestionably, scaling greater heights than they do with their debut, but few will finish this album and disagree that Welcome to Our Arbor Day Fair is full of promise and promise realized.
Chadwick Easton