Catherine Avenue

Biirdie spins sweeping anthems told in California semi-gloss, with twinges of West Coast Country and big-hearted Southern balladry. It's an album about place and location, about the way that geography affects us. California itself figures heavily as a character on the record; two of the band's members are Southern ex-pats and the lyrics often address the bewilderment of finding oneself transplanted to Los Angeles. The music falls somewhere in the midst of Fleetwood Mac, Grandaddy, CSNY, Rilo Kiley, and Brill Building pop, but that's by no means a complete list. This is ambitious orchestral music decked out in gorgeous harmonies, ringing pianos, and some pretty killer guitar work that knows a thing or two about dynamism. -parasitesandsycophants.blogspot.com