Mood Swings

The Small Sins is a group led by former Carnations member, Thomas D'Arcy. Small Sins is his baby and you can tell as every song is almost, but not quite, overwhelmed by his presence. This album starts very solidly, with several outstanding tracks: the anthematic 'I Need A Friend', the wonderfully banjo-infused 'Morning Face', and potentially my favorite, the Magical Mystery Tour-esque 'What Your Baby's Been Doing'. Other fairly good tunes include the single (hear it below) 'On the Line', the hilarious 'Drunk E-Mail', and the endearing 'We Will Break Our Own Hearts.' I can see that there's a gun on the cover of Mood Swings, but I don't understand the (at least) 3 references to guns in these songs.

D'Arcy's flavor of electronica-tinged pop is entirely edible but I think that I like 'What Your Baby's Been Doing' most because D'Arcy sings it in falsetto - his other songs feature his very prominent and earnest voice and sometimes I feel like it's a bit too much for me, you might feel entirely different - good for you. Small Sins is touring Canada through November, I hope they make it Stateside to see how they pull this off live. - LAist