Love Of Everything "Superior Mold and Die" (Record Label)
By Ben Taylor
Tuesday. May 02, 12:03 AM
Meandering bedroom pop that wants to be more complex than it is.

Oh man, it would be so tempting to give a big shout out to J.D. Considine (of Musician Magazine’s Short Takes reviews) and have this review consist of nothing but “Love Of Everything… twee and insufferable apparently,” but that wouldn’t be fair to LOE’s Bobby Burg, who’s been cranking out lo-fi folksy nursery rhyme pop in between stints with Joan Of Arc and Make Believe, bands not exactly known for their coherence or lack of pretension.

Left to his own devices, Burg writes basic and precious songs, fleshing them out by adding layer after layer of instruments with a looping pedal, building up repetitive textures with kitchen-sink arrangements utilizing acoustic guitar, Casio synth, thumb piano, ticking clocks… whatever’s lying around, it sounds like. There are some nice moments, in a hushed Pinback sort of way, and a brief “Sister Ray”-ish noise freak-out at the end of “Drive Through Rainbow,” but mostly the droning arpeggios just oscillate away for a while before Burg starts singing his meandering lyrics, and then the songs end without much in the way of hooks. His voice has that emo reediness to it, and while he’s certainly less spastic than Joan Of Arc’s Tim Kinsella (who makes an appearance behind the drum kit here), he could certainly benefit from singing more into his looper to reinforce his precariously thin vocals, as he does on “Too Much Happy Wet Hair.” He’s got the high-pitched adolescent wistfulness of The Apples in Stereo’s Robert Schneider, but without the cartoony sugar-rush pop songs to back it up.

It’s no surprise that Love Of Everything will mostly appeal to fans of Joan Of Arc and Make Believe, with their similarly jumbled combinations of tweaked indie rock and inscrutable lyrics. There’s a certain low-key charm to Superior Mold and Die, but it’s not that far removed from what any of your friends were doing after they got their first Pavement record and a 4-track PortaStudio.
www.loveofeverything.com
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Ben Taylor

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