Mothboxer - Sand And The Rain

Before moving on to the review, just a quick note that there will be a Yoga For Recovery Benefit Concert this Thursday night at the Lincoln Tap Room at 3010 N. Lincoln Avenue. The $20 admission will help support Yoga For Recovery’s mission to empower women in prison. Entertainment will be provided by the gritty duo Razorhouse, The Lucky 3 Blues Band, and Laura Boton. 

Releasing a new album or EP has been an annual tradition for the UK band Mothboxer since it formed in 2010. Sand And The Rain, which came out this past August, is a collection of 10 smooth-as-silk Brit pop songs that should click with fans of Squeeze and XTC. Mothboxer can’t match the satiric bite of those groups but does offer infectious melodies augmented by the gorgeous harmonies of Dave Ody and Robbie Burley, both of whom also play guitar and keyboards. 

The fun and quirky “We’re All Out Of Our Minds,” with its airy tune and driving beat by drummer Phil Davies, is the song that most resembles XTC. Like much of Sand And The Rain, it features fluid piano playing. “Everything’s Changed” and “Looking For Summer” breeze by, and Mothboxer embarks on a change of direction with the harder-hitting “Stop” and “Take Me Down.” The album opens with the atmospheric and acoustic-based “All That I Want,” which provides an immediate showcase for Ody and Burley’s highly compatible voices.