Wednesday, February 9, 2011

CD Review: The Telepathic Butterflies - Breakfast In Suburbia


The Telepathic Butterflies are part of an emerging class of bands whose careers were given a huge boost via the buzz generated on music blogs. Sadly, Broken Hearted Toy was not among these influential sites, but having heard the Canadian power pop trio’s 2008 release, Breakfast In Suburbia, I’m happy to make a belated leap onto the bandwagon.


It’s easy to see what the excitement was about. The Telepathic Butterflies strike a balance between original British Invasion influenced pop and more energetic modern rock while delivering clever lyrics through adventurously arranged harmony vocals. On Breakfast In Suburbia, they craft catchy tales of everyday life like “While You’re Asleep” and “If It’s All Too Much,” or in the case of “The Caution Slumber,” which evokes Revolver era Beatles, a tale of the end of life.


The Telepathic Butterflies show they’re dedicated followers of The Kinks on the satiric portrait, “Mr. Dysfunctionality,” and bring back the chiming country rock sound of The Byrds on “She Looks Good.” The melodic “The Wishing Invisible” taps into “Another Day” by Paul McCartney & Wings, while the lighter “A Midlife Crisis,” offers a middle-aged guy ticking off a litany of missed opportunities. Breakfast In Suburbia has its harder edged material as well, like “Are You For Real?” and “The Trouble With Keeping Up With The Joneses,” which sports bitter lines like, “They roll their eyes when the morning shines/And dread the day they awake to find.”

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