Cardboard Dream House has just released their latest disc of hard charging, action packed music. Their new CD, Perspective, on Connecticut’s Neurotronix Records, reveals a band with kaleidoscopic talents, a band that can, within one shift, turn a song into a louder, more colorful work, a band that does all that while remaining true to their core sound.
“Inside” opens the disc with hard rocking drums, bass, and keyboards. While the rhythm section and synthesizer go into overdrive, guitarist Bobby Roberts plays a piercing phrase, spearheading the band. His vocal ranges from casual cool to a rocking belt in a number that rocks to its own energetic flow..
“Inside Me” finds Roberts belting out a smooth, quirky vocal over a wave of rocking muscular sound. One can picture this band driving a crowd wild. Their chorus here, catchy and quirky, feels haunted, a chorus that grabs one’s attention with its otherworldly sound
“Dragons Burn” reaches lofty heights just coming out of the gate. Its raw, emotive piano line from Lydia Arachne carries the feeling as well as the piano on Aerosmith’s “Dream On.” Around that piano, a lead guitar is just itching to launch into a blistering hot phrase, and it does. Robert’s plaintive vocal here perfectly colors what this song is all about, and it doesn’t hurt to have such a thick, chunky good rhythm section beneath him.
“Hollow” drives like a truck, steady, fast, and unstoppable. Its crunching, stomping forward momentum is rock in its purest sense. Roberts’ particular vocal timbre keeps drawing attention to itself with its quirky sound. The chorus here pulls one by the ears with its hard hitting message as well as its infectious hook. Roberts fires off another winsome lead guitar phrase, one that seems to get reaching new heights, like flames getting higher, harder to handle.
A winsome tune, “Stay,” takes its time unfurling its mellow guitar strum and light keyboard approach. Backing vocalist Suzanne Vick matches Roberts well on a lilting chorus. In this mid-tempo song, we can hear the talents of drummer Eli Farland, putting just enough fills over the beat to keep things interesting. We also get a subtle bass line from Haneef Harris, a busy low end that maintains self-control, never going beyond support role while keeping a lot of motion in this piece.
After a subtle intro with only a touch of each instrument, “Just A Game” races along a path blazed by Farland’s speedy stick work, Harris’s bass pace, and Roberts racing guitar chords. Roberts’ vocal keeps everything wrapped up in his peculiar vocal before Arachne pushes a speedy synth line through, sharp as a knife, unstoppable. Everything here rocks to the top, each player showing signs of aggression and precision, each laying down something to talk about.
“Black Light Flurry” pushes its way in with assertive electric guitar chords that make the listener want to hear more. This one is all in its changes. Its different sections, mid-tempo, up-tempo, offer a variety of nice touches. A sprawling keyboard line keeps it warm when the band slows it down. The rhythm section knocks it forward with quick, concise bumps of sound. Roberts’ vocal jumps out with a surprisingly wide growl here and there and his lead guitar slices it way forward with muscular momentum before becoming a line of supporting notes in the backdrop.
“Belong” jumps in with bossy bass and guitar grunge kicking open the doors of the listener’s consciousness. The tight, hard smacking rhythm section have their own mule kick, an action packed groove that scares everything out of its way. Robert’s applies his quirky vocal timbre well to this work which shifts motions, speed, changes that feel vaguely like Rush, as does a Arachne‘s synth line..
The band continues the hard, hitting pace with “Until The End Of Time,” a bracing rocker that gets pushed down the road by a very busy rhythm section while Roberts’ lead guitar slices the atmosphere open with his laser beam precision. Suzanne Vick returns to help Roberts keep a forlorn chorus theme loaded with a thick, shifting texture that adds further interest to what this group is doing.
“The End” gets a flexible groove when Roberts bounces his lead guitar work off of the rhythm section. The wide sound he creates when he thickens the groove makes a perfect platform for him to sing over. He swaggers, vocally, over that platform, a wide vocal that stands out for it power and uniqueness. His lead guitar break kicks butt as it zig zags around the groove with incendiary zeal.
Closing out with their band name title track, “Cardboard Dream House”, this band shows yet another side of its personality as well as another facet of its talents. A gentle climb with mellow instrumentation and an easeful vocal make one feel this piece rising up in emotive grist as well as lyrical perception. Suddenly, the four piece is rocking out with an R.E.M. style tight forcefulness, a cascade of piano over solid smacking action from the rest of the band. It’s a contrast that works well in and of itself but it’s also an effective farewell song at the disc’s conclusion.
Cardboard Dream House proves on this Perspective disc that it can rock out as hard as any other band while remaining committed to a creative, fresh sound. Connecticut, a fertile ground for a variety of musical styles, just might have themselves another bragging right when this group reaches its full potential. Produced by Richard Demko at Greenwood Studios in Seymour, Connecticut and engineered by Vic Steffens at Horizon Music Group in West Haven, Connecticut, this disc jumps out of the speakers with a seriously real sound.
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