Anthill, Waiting for the Sun

Anthill has been growing on me. One of the difficulties with reviewing a bunch of stuff at the same time is that it’s easy to get hooked on the album that creates the biggest splash or makes the strongest first impression. This framing effect is even stronger when the other albums are less accessible, more complex, take longer to grow on you, or just suck. Waiting for the Sun doesn’t suck (not even close), but it is a slow grower. It took me a good ten or so listens before I really started to get it. After about the fifth listen, I was enjoying the hooks, and by the tenth, I had included it on my daily listening playlist.

Anthill is fun alt-country with the hint of a harder edge, as much John Mellencamp as it is Oasis or Travis. Singer-songwriter Mark Oshachoff clearly has dug into the vein of Wilco but is not as depressing or lacking in lyrical content. Musically, you could stand Adam Duritz in front of the band and one might never realize that it wasn’t the Counting Crows. That isn’t a negative, by the way, just an observation. I also hear Toad the Wet Sprocket and a bit of Matthew Sweet. “Sleepers” is the weakest song on the album, turning on the lame phrase “dreaming is only for the sleepers,” and reads like a teenager’s first trip to a hotel hook-up with his girlfriend. It does recover with a nice vocal counterpoint at the end, however. “Symbotic Sun” has an REM “The One I Love” vibe, probably the most obvious nick on the album. Overall, a good EP from a band that shows a ton of promise as they mature.