I had the pleasure of listening to two albums for reviewing, by The Tea Club. Here’s the review for the band’s second album entitle Rabbit, which was released in 2010. The band has evolved since the debut into a refined sound while retaining the aggressive edge from the debut. They also expanded their line-up between albums to include a keyboardist, Tom Brislin for the album Rabbit.
Just like the debut, the band mixes pop, indie and progressive rock into something quite unique (in my opinion). With the addition of the keyboards, opened up new ways to create music. This also catapulted them to being compared to more bands like Pineapple Thief, Gazpacho and Oceansize, to name a few, while having a unique vibe. I feel that Rabbit is just as important release as albums being released by those band around the same time.
From the first trio of songs “Simon Magnus” (6:23), “Diamondized” (6:34) and “The Night They Killed Steve Shelly” (9:07), which all flow almost seamlessly from one song to the next. From this point, I was captivated and needed to hear more. These are some of my favorites of the album.
The band slows down a bit on the next song, “Royal Oil Can” (5:15), which could be considered a (prog) ballad and it’s very dreamy too. Continuing with the mellow vibe is “Out Of The Oceans” (7:17), while having more powerful moments to it as well as some amazing harmony vocals. “He‘s Like A Spider” (6:20) fits perfect along with the previous two tracks while showing some power to it. It also has a classic Genesis (Gabriel-era) feel to it as well.
It seems the album works in threes, at least with me it does. They seem to have an a more aggressive presence throughout. The last trio of songs “Nuclear Density Gauge” (7:21), “Tumbleweeds” (4“09) acts as a bridge between the previous track and the ending ’epic’ track “Astro” (11:30) which ends off the album just perfectly and flawlessly.
This band already have two amazing albums, counting this one, in their catalog. Judging by the evolution between the two albums, make me feel like the best is yet to come. Even though I said that starting from the beginning, I feel that Rabbit is hands down the stronger of the two albums. I will leave you with two important words, Highly Recommended!
Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on April 26th, 2011
