Reviewed by Mike Z.
Maybe the highest compliment one can pay to a band is that it’s not very easy to decide what to make of them. After four listens I’m still mining material out of The Pharmacy’s “Choose Yr Own Adventure” and if that doesn’t scream getting your money’s worth, I don’t know what does. At one point it even occurred to me that this might be a concept album, so suffice to say I’m already hooked enough on this band’s sound that I’m getting a little carried away with things here. Let me slow it down some:
“Black Ice Cream” and “Mirror” resemble one another in that they both have great hooks but also enough balls to walk confidently on the razor’s edge where power and pop meet. “Tropical Yeti” and “Warm and Untorn” stumble and fall decidedly on the pop side of things, but even these gaffes are forgivable because they serve to move the album along and endear the listener more to the big picture here. “Little Toys on a Shelf” is at least slightly indebted to Vampire Weekend, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The lyrics, however, are. A week metaphor (guess the least creative thing toys on a shelf could represent and the work your way downward from there) is further hampered by sophomoric sentiment and totally submarines an otherwise capable tune. If that’s what it takes for this band to break, I won’t begrudge them it, because they are this close to being a ready for primetime act. “Try to Explain” is a solid track which worships at the altar of “Waterloo Sunset”-era Kinks. As the album expands away from more obvious fare, the devotion to Ray Davies’ melodic songwriting resonates even more deeply in the later, contemplative tracks on this record. This is an act who is happy to toy with discordant sounds, but is really more about crafting energetic, well-honed pop songs. Fittingly, the effort ends with “Adieu, Adieu,” and The Pharmacy leaves it all on the field with this one. Powerful, catchy, and clever, this track makes me want to start the disc over and find out when they’re playing in my town.