September 21, 2010: The Meligrove Band releases Shimmering Lights.
Have we gushed enough yet? And by “gushed” we mean this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, or this. We reviewed the album twice. We posted about their Denton show twice. We keep going on and on about that hilarious interview. The Shimmering Lights tracklist shows up a dizzying four times on our top 25 list of 2010 singles. We’re so obsessive about this album, each of the Looking Back at 2010 subtitles features a brief snippet from the Shimmering Lights lyrics sheet: “We’ll shine divine light on this madness.” “Knee-deep in afterlife.” “If only direction ever came.”
They’d be forgiven for filing a restraining order. Four restraining orders, to be precise.
All this is to say that Shimmering Lights is LP of the year. Three months in and you can still stream it, anonymously and free of charge, at their Myspace page. Cover to cover. Without parting with your credit card number. Stream, now, the brass and brash “Ghosts at My Back.” The court-jesting “Make Believe It.” The fast and luminous “Racing to Shimmering Lights.” Like any proper masterpiece, there are disposable tracks: “White Like Lies” simply doesn’t belong anywhere near “Make Believe It.” And, although it’s hard, frenetic and triumphant, you’ll rarely make it to album-closing “Eagles.”
Indeed, Shimmering Lights is so good, they’d be forgiven for waiting two years, then releasing it again, note for note, under a different name and album cover. (Backhanded Sons of Bitches gets our vote.) Go now, and see what we were raving about all through autumn.
