When I first heard Fish Tank Blues, I couldn't get it out of my head for the rest of the evening. Catchy & fun, I was ready to go rustle up some trouble. The rest of the CD portrays the promised eclectic mix of genres, and makes me think that even twenty years of knowing The Reverend is just a scratch of the surface.
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... Tim Birchard is an awesome musician in general (Dragonfly, etc), and I really love the tone and near-experimental organization of form in this album.  What I don't know relates to the lyrics!  Hence the title of my commentary; but, perhaps that's for Chappell and the many (I'm pretty sure) who know the story.  Actually, rather than feeling confused or disinvolved, the lyrics leave me amused or introspect, and, the tunes leave me either rockin' or mellow!  Anybody could dig the album.  And, anybody could paint their own picture of it, too!  Is that the point?  Maybe so...

Give us more, TB!

Friend and Fan,
Brendan Bombaci
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I like this album. The music is great. Most of the songs have rather ambitious stories to tell, making the lyrics rather important, and they were not as smooth and cohesive as I seemed to want while listening. 

Intro hook test - In the first few seconds do I feel as if I want to keep listening? Depends alot on how I feel at the time. 
Reverend - yes - love the beat, scrape and distortion.
Still Life - maybe - the blues strings got me but something was a little too lyrical in it (the intro) 
Hudi - yes - nice layering intro...maybe a tad cliche...I new when the next layer was coming. 
Strokes - no - too sweet. too cliche. When I heard those "dweeeeps" from the 80's, I couldn't take it seriously anymore. 
Search - maybe - after Strokes I wasn't sure if the organ was a joke or not...turned out to be so, and that kept me going. Took a bit too long to get to the sermon. Almost lost interest. 
Rainbow-1 - yes - feelings oscillated between "sappy poetry" (negative) and "mournful, innocent poetry" (positive). After a few seconds the later won out and kept my interest. 
Human - yes - light, airy, fun...
Tender - yes - the bells spaciness almost lost me but when the distorted electronic digeridoo showed up, I was saved. 
Canvas - no - liked how the intro started...then became impatient...when the lyrics showed up, they lost me. 
Paper Wings - no - glad the lyrics showed up early, but forced rhymes lost me. 
Rainbow2 - yes- much better intro than one. The faster tempo makes the are-they-sappy-or-sincere lyrics seem more sincere. I wanted to hear more. 
Closet Door - yes- Detected silly right away. 
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General other comments. 
Though some songs started 'early' most had a rather predictable build at the start. Would of like a bit more surprise. 
The local references (barton springs, manchacha, etc) just didn't work for me. Seemed too hokey or something and didn't forward the arch of the song when they hit. Not that local references couldn't have worked, but maybe a different attitude when speaking them, or framing them with other words. 
The musicality of Reverend is fantastic. The tone and fuzz of the lyrics work well. The story told left me a little confused. I couldn't tell why the Reverend would be interested in a band. How was he related to a painted commode? Sometimes the pace of the lyrics didn't sync with the pace of the notes (e.g. music riffing while lyrics step in time). 
Rainbow 2 had a great lyrical start. But when "we" popped up "When will we feel the sun on our faces" I didn't know who you meant. "We" - society. "We" a lost love? The thematic link between parks and traffic didn't quite bridge. 
Human - again got stumbled in the story. How is a unicorn a squirrel? Humans move into the house but only the tall one has apposable thumbs? What does the short human have? 
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Overall the album is musically satisfying, nice variation. Sometimes a little cliche. It's not that I don't get silliness or nonsense or fantasy or the beauty of things that just don't match, but there's a certain awkwardness here that distracts, and I get it is frustrating because otherwise the songs are very fulfilling. A lot has to do with the "micro-tones" in delivery. Consider the Beatles "Why don't we do it in the road." That is the basic lyric through the whole song, but because of the masterful way Paul (yes it was Paul singing) tweaked each rendition of the line, it did not sound repetitious. There was new, subtle meaning each time. 
 
The lyrics are often compelling but are a little like that shopping cart with an occasionally funky wheel. Your cruising down the isle, grooving to the hum of the wheels turning, then bop, there's a stumble that disturbs the groove. They are all just small mechanical issues. If you're more of a music person than a story person you won't notice at all, I think.
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Send me your CD and I´ll review the other six songs. Don´t worry, I´ll let you know if they stink. By the way, maybe you and your potential customers will appreciate to know that "Will there even be a rainbow Part 1" is extremely addictive, specially after drinking half a bottle of Baron de L´Estac.
By the way, I give you five stars cause your 1st 2 songs absolutely deserve them.
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