Neva Dinova

Item: Neva Dinova
Author: BW Diederich

(2002)

Reviewed by BW Diederich

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Label Crank! RecordsDecapolisDecember 2002

alternative country britpop

Neva Dinova are a new band on Crank! Records. This is their first album and it is self-titled.

So Crank records has a pretty cool history, right? I mean, they released some of the first Cursive stuff, and any friend of Tim Kasher is a friend of mine. Mineral called Crank home for its full lengths, and they're even responsible for the vulgar aural assault of genius the Icarus Line bring.

So what is this?

Neva Dinova have 3 guitarists. THREE! So you'd expect either raging chaos or textured atmospherics, and if you guessed the latter you're right. The first three songs sound like lost Coldplay songs, and that's not a compliment coming from me. It's faux brit pop. In fact, we can dispense right away with the majority of the album by pointing to the bands they imitate. 1-3, 5 and 7 sound like Coldplay. 6 is an ill fated attempt to "rock-out" that in the end totally disrupts the flow of the album. 9 sounds sort of like U2 and Coldplay collaborating. U2's anthemic rock combined with Coldplay's boring Britpop. Not exactly a match made in heaven.

So what songs are left? Well, 4 is one of the best songs on the album. It sounds a bit like Wilco in all the right ways, slightly catchy alt-country with intelligent and wry lyrics. Like Wilco before they tried to muddy up the works with random computer noise. In 8 the vocals are heavily reverbed and float over brushed cymbals and snare. It's almost a slow rag time feel, definitely a step and a half above the Coldplay songs. The last song is a slight number, with wavering guitar throughout and meandering plucked strings. Smokey bars and the old west are all over this thing.

So there we are, song by song. I'm tempted to end the review here, but people like summaries of the good and the bad. The bad: Almost half of the album consists of what sound like lost Coldplay songs. It's not that they're particularly bad, it's just that they're boring. If you like Coldplay you'll probably like this album. The good: The songs are well played. I mean, the guitars are clean, the band is together, etc.

The record just feels lifeless to me. And yes, if I was a fan of Coldplay I'm sure I'd like this better, but even if Coldplay didn't exist, the fact remains Neva Dinova play bland, atmosphere laden Britpop that apes Radiohead, similar to Coldplay.

C-