Tammany Hall Machine, Amateur Saw

Austin’s Tammany Hall Machine might not earn points for originality, but they can certainly claim a win based on execution. Amateur Saw occasionally has the air of pastiche about it — it channels post-Beatles English power-pop with an uncanny accuracy, but it does it with such a command of the style that it is hard to complain.

The album opens with “Mega Lamb,” which works a “Green Onions” piano riff and has some spiky guitar that might fool you into thinking your hearing one of those garage revival bands from a few years ago. But press on undaunted, for greater treasures await you: “Farrah” has a sweet falsetto disco strut that will have you Bee-Geeing around the house. It’s pop-rock crack, and I would avoid soda while listening, lest your stomach explode. What “Jesus Chrysler” is about lyrically, I don’t know or care, but I was a convert as soon as I heard those swirling, angelic harmony vocals.

This is definitely a band where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. While Joel Mullins handles the bulk of the songwriting chores and his vocals and keys are right up front, none of the other members are dispensable. Nick Warrenchuk’s multi-instrumental talents, in particular, really help the band’s sound gel.

Which makes it a travesty that the production on Amateur Saw is so flat-sounding. There are so many good things going on here, so many moments when the brass should be melting your face, little triumphs of arrangement that should jump out at you, but somehow, they don’t. I found myself listening closely through headphones to eke out what these guys have to offer, and this is by no means a headphones album. It’s a big, brash party album that needs to be heard loud. I’ll paraphrase both Reagan and Badfinger by saying: “Tear down this (old grey) wall.” Get these guys a bigger studio budget, and I think they’ll vaporize it.