Year Of The Rabbit

(Elektra)
by Tim Den

Yet another supergroup that delivers: Year Of The Rabbit, featuring Ken Andrews (ex-Failure; producer extraordinaire), Jeff Garbor (National Skyline), Tim Dow (ex-Shiner), and Soloman Snyder (ex-Cupcakes), prove that they’re worthy of Cave In’s worship on this stellar debut. Bombastic grooves, arena-shaking tunes, all parading to Andrews’ uniquely left-of-center pop sensibility. With guitar effects that conjure up images of distorting cosmos, it’s no wonder Andrews is one of Stephen Brodsky’s heros. And like Cave In’s Antenna, Year Of The Rabbit put those intergalactic effects to good use on solid songs that are as catchy as they are powerfully full.

You can’t help but lunge your body forward to the staccato bass line of opener “Rabbit Hole” and the crowd-moving stomp of “Vaporize,” but Year Of The Rabbit never forget that good songs are about more than just the beat (beautiful acoustic number “Hold Me Up” and the dreamy verse melody of closer “Say Goodbye”). With an album that contains a perfect share of both, I’d say this is definitely the Rabbit’s year.
(www.yearoftherabbit.net)