The Fox Derby, Regular Dreams

There’s an intriguing British-ness to most of Regular Dreams, the debut full-length by The Fox Derby, a kind of cool, distant, almost New Wave-ish feel to the bulk of the songs that’s amplified by the intricate, often baroque arrangements. And yeah, a large part of stems from the fact that frontman Kenneth Pardue’s vocals make me think of Morrissey — not that his voice is much like Moz’s, but that Pardue uses the same detached, almost emotionless delivery for most of his lines.

To The Fox Derby’s credit, it works pretty ridiculously well. They start off “Stormy Weather” with “Tubular Bells”-esque cold, minimal piano and delicate strumming and steadily rev things up ’til the band’s playing an epic, sky-spanning track that’s turbulent and loud and foreboding, yet still utterly gorgeous. “Hold On The Brakes” — which is, up-front, one of the best songs on here — shifts things around a bit while retaining that Britpop vibe, incorporating choppy rhythms (that make me think of Damien Jurado, for some reason), somber vocals, nice horn touches, murky guitars, and overfuzzed, “block”-like synths in the break. The result comes off like The Killers if “Somebody Told Me” were about something actually important, like getting injured in a car wreck.

The baroque-ness is even more apparent on “Paintings,” where Pardue steps sideways and actually does sound like Moz for a minute or two, and the band starts to remind me of The Decemberists at least in terms of delivery (i.e., no overlong songs about military wives here, thankfully). There’s also a serious resemblance to Seattleites The Long Winters, and that’s no bad thing, in my book.

I’m not entirely sure what the hell happens on “Can’t You See,” but that’s where the Derby crew apparently say “fuck it” and throw out the five previous tracks and do something completely new. Dropping the Britpop thing entirely, The Fox Derby instead come up with a bouncy, shiny chunk of indie-pop, complete with driving bassline and almost-emo harmony vocals, that makes me think of Silver Scooter (or maybe matt pond PA) more than anything else. And believe it or not, it’s freaking great.

“Open Window” continues in the same vein, albeit more slowly and deliberately; the guitars jangle and chime at the start, then step their way through a central melody that sounds like it was taken straight out of “My Name Is Jonas” before ripping free and setting the speakers on fire for the break. Closer “Animals & Creatures” goes its own way entirely, with the band trembling and swaying their way through an honest-to-God Motown ballad — and not doing a half-bad job of it, either.

Now, on the bad end of things, I’ll admit that some of the lyrics are a little shaky, particularly on slower, more “romantic” songs like “Animals & Creatures” or “Paintings,” but hell, I’m willing to overlook it if I can listen to the rest of the disc with a big grin on my face. The Fox Derby may not be quite where they want to go yet, but I’m pretty blown away already.