CD Review  

Rating 94%

reviewed by Charlie O'

Eyestrings is based around the talents of Ryan Parmenter (nephew of the great Matthew), who does the keyboards and vocals, along with Alan Rutter on guitars, Bob Young on drums and Mathew Kennedy on bass.

Burdened Hands shows, with typical American aplomb, how competent they are, with songs in a variety of styles. You have the Melodic AORish tracks, such as opener Recovery, full to the brim with harmonies, melodies and Genesis hooks. Then there is the energetic and quirky tracks, such as Itchy Tickler, Just A Body - sort of Genesis meets Bowie (think Counting Out Time on Mars) and Slack Jaw, complete with it's jazzy timings and Tom Waits stye gravocal.

There's also tracks like Dead Supermen - imagine Leonard Cohen bumping into Nick Cave and covering Metallica's Fade To Black - and Funnel, a homage to early Genesis. Real Genesis. Gone weird. Some tracks don't work - such as Nothing - my notes said "quiet beginning, quiet middle, quiet end"

But some do, like the penultimate track, Time Will Tell - another jaunty little ditty that rises to a frenetic crescendo, before stopping dead and heralding the final track, the beautiful Empty Box. A track that puts me in mind of Porcupine Tree's Heartattack In A Layby, or The Rest Will Flow. This is, to my jaundiced ears, the best track on the album - the 12 minute epic where it all comes together!

So, to me it seems that Eyestrings are a band trying to show off the three sides to their character, Progressive rootiness, weird quirkyness, and themselves. They fall a bit between two stools, and are maybe stuck between a rock and a hard place. And somewhere else as well. Plenty of potential, plenty of talent too, but in which direction wil they use it? Well, we won't have to wait long!

Check out the website at www.eyestrings.com