Safe As Houses

Album Review

The indie rock world was so fragmented by 2006 that it's hard to say that any effort in the field might have had a hard time finding a place to comfortably occupy in that niche. If there is such a thing, though, Parenthetical Girls' Safe as Houses could be it. On one level, the group are obviously pop songwriters, offering tender, reasonably tuneful, reflective (if eccentric) compositions, and using lo-fi orchestral production of sorts. On another, they're experimentalists, using so many different layers of electronics that they sometimes distract from the songs themselves. The wide-eyed childlike touches crisscross with obviously sexual metaphors, and the high-pitched vocals tremble with a feyness that makes Marc Bolan seem like Howlin' Wolf. The ambition is admirable, but there's so much going on that (inadvertently or not) seems a little at odds with each other that it's a little like trying to listen to two discs at once. "Oh Daughter/Disaster" is about the most accessible of the tracks, as the underlying hymnal grace of the melody is complemented by the various grandly droning textures in a fairly uncluttered fashion. Indie pop fans might wish to hear this material in a more naked state that might make the distant echoes of pop auteurs like Brian Wilson, Phil Spector, and Marc Bolan easier to appreciate; experimentalists might find the material too wimpily pop-oriented to command their attention.