ATOMIC 7
Gowns By Edith Head (Mint)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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Remember the theme song from Kids In The Hall? That was done by a Canadian band called Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet. Their guitarist, Brian Connelly, now leads this new instrumental band into broader territory, no longer satisfied to stick with the twangy spy/surf. Now the rockabilly is more than a hint, there's sweet tropical exotica, whistle-stop country and several other musical spices sprinkled over the 19 tracks. Don't worry about that number. A few reviews have made it sound like torture to get through, like this was some marathon of sameish noise, when in reality it only clocks in at just under 40 minutes and has a lot of diversity and some pretty damned good playing from the whole band to keep you bouncing along. It's very hard to be in a bad mood while this stuff is playing, and I don't know about you, but I need as many CDs like that as I can get. This is just their debut, but I already like it a whole lot more than any of the Shadowy Man albums. It's got more to offer, and you have to give them ten points before the first note is played for the cool album title, at least if you're a classic film fan and you've seen the name Edith Head in the credits of a thousand great flicks. Even in an untitled cardboard case, though, this one would be a winner.

© 2002 - DJ Johnson