As Tall As Lions

(Triple Crown)
by Scott Hefflon

Long Island Brit-styled pop is a toughy. At first glance, it’s either some mop-top poserboy who turned 17 so he’s too old to be exploited by Drive-Thru, or it’s a glorious addition to the non-suck world of great pop. There’s a bit more AM cheese (the indie kids think it’s hip) and guitar noddlings (and not remarkable noodling, the kinda stuff a Saddle Creek band could pull off without breaking a sweat, and those guys don’t like to work hard) than I care for, but there are sultry sways here and belted out melodies there that bring me back again and again. The bio asks us to think Sunny Day Real Estate meets Elbow or Doves meets The Police, and as usual, the bio asks too much. But it’s a far cry better than Brand New (Triple Crown brought us that overrated bunch, and fluke still makes me wonder why music fans settle for such lame shit). Ain’t no jaw-dropping Idlewild, Snow Patrol, Keene, or whatever, but hell, unless the band parade around like they’re the best band in the world (which stunts a band’s growth faster than you can say “I believe all the positive feedback we get from kids posting on our MySpace page so they can see their names on the screen”), As Tall As Lions have a huge leg up on 90% of the wanna-bes. “Milk and Honey” alone should get them radioplay, and from there, if they stay humble and fine-tune their craft, they might become a staple for passion rock fans.
(www.triplecrownrecords.com)