Chin Up Chin Up

Chin Up Chin Up - We Should Have Never Lived Like We Were Skyscrapers

Finger picking good art-pop from Chicago. The band draws its audio sensibilities from Modest Mouse and The Appleseed Cast, mostly in the guitars, which drop between jerky picking to sustained chords creating a sweet combination of two different distinct sounds.

The song has a real narrative feel to it. The vocals seem secondary to the melodies of the guitars, bass, keyboard, (and even the drums) that tend to get handed off like a torch from phrase to phrase and measure to measure. Layers and layers go in and out of each other. It sounds like an instrumental with vocals added as an afterthought.

The speak-sing vocals crossed witht he jangly quasi group vocals lend themselves well to the feel of the song.

There's something slightly sad about this song, although there really is no reason for it. A band member's tragic death weighs in on the song (and the rest of the CD for that matter) that actually pulled the band members closer together. This song is excellent in toeing the line between this energetic feeling and the feeling of despair holding it back. While the song was written before the accident, the feeling rings throughout the recording.

We should all the glad and proud for Chin Up Chin Up keeping playing. There's a lot more gems to come out of them (like this song), I'm sure.