Brighton's Birdeatsbaby call themselves "Dark Cabaret". It's not a bad summation but it is shorthand so it does fall short.
Sure there are cabaret influences here (helter-skelter waltz on "Hymn" and "The Trouble...", the gypsy twist of "Seventeen"), but there are also clear ringing pop/rock elements. With their non-traditional instrumentation (piano upfront, violin, cello, drums, some bass but scant-if-any guitar) Birdeatsbaby have carefully planted themselves between the cabarock of bands like Scarlett Room and the chamber pop of the Decemberists.
It is perhaps the "dark" part of dark cabaret that is the most off.
Yes, each song on the band's debut full-length tells a story of dissatisfaction and/or frustration (which is a lovely and welcome change of pace from the angst and faux-rage of guitar driven rock). But these are not gut wrenching tales. The CD cover features the band's vocalist Mishkin Mullaly still, pale and exquisite apparently wretching up flowers. As with all good products the cover is an augury of the contents- things are going to be dredged up from deep inside and they may be surprising but they are not vile, they are illustrative but not repugnant. And in the end they are tempered with such a pop spritely-ness Birdeatsbaby must find some kinship with Queen and ABBA. Like those two antecedents you will find yourself smiling as you sing along with tales of discontent and broken hearts.
Despite all of the variety influences and styles intermingled on "Here She Comes-a-Tumblin'" the result is wonderfully unified. This is the work of a conhesive band, a group of folks clearly on the same page and intent on finishing the story together.
I know that some listeners shy away from bands with cellos and violins, bands that toss around identifiers like "cabaret". Some folks are afriad that they're in for something "old timey", dated, irrelevant. Let me put your minds at ease: Birdeatsbaby are a thuroughly contemporary band. The only "old timey-ness" here is that of timelessness. To wit: the only old fashioned element on this album is the fact that good song writting never goes out of style.
