Whales walk, whales talk

An Angle. A band with every intention to be as moving as the one and only Conor Oberst. However, they take a different turn with their music, but only slightly. Since We Can Breathe Under Alcohol is the band’s best album, not that I’ve heard their most recent one, we’ll stick with the old. An Angle has vivid words to express how much they “hate the indie music scene,” while they are pretty much as indie and hipster as one can get. Observe the above album cover. Take in the antique merry-go-round horse, cardboard signs, colored boxes, the scruff one of their faces, and the strong lull of alcohol. Look at the lead singer as he peers over the “CAN” sign uncertainly and a bit apathetically. This is indie, through and through.

While their songs are filled with alcoholism, the battle with it, one song in particular stands out. While Kris Anaya sings with his band, he harmonizes at times and in ways that directly mimic Bright Eyes. Now, their entire sound isn’t like Bright Eyes, so you Bright Eyes haters need not to fret. They have wonderful metaphors in their songs. However, one bothers me greatly. The song is entitled, “Whales Walk, Whales Talk.” Now, while it is a good song about alcoholism and it is slightly pleasant to listen to, there is hardly any mention to whales as the title leads us to believe. I was expecting a wonderful extended metaphor followed by fine alliteration, but there was one little line, “Like whales we call out in high noise and so we stand in the middle of the road and suddenly it’s all clear to me the world is growing empty.”

This is lame. Un-hipster, and lame. However, I felt alright as I was flipping through the booklet the album comes with. For the page intended to represent the song, there were two people wearing cardboard made whale costumes, one blue, one pink. This was slightly more reassuring. And this brings me to my last point. It’s so obvious how much you “hate the indie music scene” Kris especially with indie seeping from your ironic pores.

I do give this album a few stars however. It’s nice acoustic guitar melodies and pianos are a nice combination and you can listen to part of their new album on www.myspace.com/ananglemusic and listen to Whales Walk, Whales Talk on Project Playlist and where ever you find MP3s.

For information on Beluga Whales: Here