Eisley
Room Noises (Reprise)
by Marc Hirsh

originally published in Nashville Scene, March 10-16, 2005

Eisley’s gently dramatic eyes-closed pop nabbed the band a plum spot at 2003’s South By Southwest, a tour with Coldplay and a sizeable chunk of critical buzz. How to follow up? Well, finally recording its debut album was a good start, and the just-released Room Noises makes good on the promises made by the band’s 2003 EPs Laughing City and Marvelous Things. The swoony guitars and sweeping production provide a fine backdrop for Sherri Dupree’s otherworldly voice, a girlish but rich vehicle for the band’s lyrical imagery, which skirts high-school preciousness by injecting a healthy streak of magical realism. It’s delivered with a serenity, as though Dupree is quite happily drunk on her melodies, that makes it seem like everything that happens in the songs seems to unfold in slow motion. – Marc Hirsh

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