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Ryan Auffenberg’s website
describes his sound as “Joy Division plays
the Eagles.” A more appropriate description
would be “Glen Frey plays the Eagles.”
Auffenberg’s first album on Evangeline Records,
Marigolds, is just as
earnest and overwrought as many Eagles songs, without
any attempt at rock.
Beginning with the title track, Auffenberg creates
a sad, mid-tempo sound that continues for ten
songs and about forty minutes. He has a soft and
sweet voice that hovers over music based strongly
in country/folk roots. The problem is that it
never picks up speed, which makes Marigolds seem
much, much longer than it is. The final song,
“Alright, Okay,” contains surprisingly
up-tempo banjo pickin’, but it is far too
late to pull it from the morass.
“Undercover” is the best example
of similarity to the Eagles, and could have been
lifted wholesale from the One of These Nights
album. There is a lot of languid slide guitar
over a washboard with vocals akin to “Lyin’
Eyes.”
The entire time this album was playing, I couldn’t
help but think of the brilliant
SNL Digital Short where Ben Stiller proclaims,
“I’m gonna have Glen Frey stank all
over me.” This is tremendously mean-spirited
and unprofessional, but true. Basically, this
review boils down to if you like the sad, slow
songs of the Eagles, you might enjoy Marigolds.
myspace.com/ryanauffenberg
-Ian Nelson, August 8, 2008
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