*** Webb Brothers
MAROON
(Atlantic)
Chicagoans Justin and Christiaan Webb write the type of low-slung cry-in-your-beer
laments we’ve grown to expect from hipster twentysomething guys who cure heartbreak
with bar-hopping. But the Webbs — both sons of famed ’60s pop songwriter Jimmy Webb
— don’t just tell their tales with an acoustic guitar or a scrappy garage combo for
support, they pull out all the bells and whistles. Maroon, their second
full-length, is an hour of top-notch orchestral pop, frosting the brothers’ exotic
melodies and power-pop guitar playing with strings, horns, and an impressive array
of vintage keyboards. “Summer People,” a hit single in England, where the Webbs
enjoy the adoration of the press and the pop-attuned public, billows as if done
by an urbane, chain-smoking Granddaddy; the gorgeous “Low Grade Fever” acknowledges
the trippy Pink Floyd records Mr. Webb surely discouraged. Father doesn’t always
know best.
— Mikael Wood
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