12 Songs | MR013 | Release Date 2005

With a cover picture of a lonely bride staring forlornly into the middle distance, you can be fairly safe in assuming that the Boondogs express a touch of disappointment in their songs. Yet in the distance there are bright shafts of light. Similarly, this American fivepiece embellish their intrinsically sad songs with lush pop arrangements. First song 'What I Saw In A Dream', for example, features the key line "It's the end of the world as we know it" not at all sung like R.E.M.'s lyric but voiced angelically and hopefully by Indy Grotto. The Boondogs' songs are certainly filled with that sense of dreamy Americana favoured by Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips but on 'Fever Dreams' they are less frazzled and more in keeping with the images of loneliness and deserted wastelands so eloquently captured by Australian 80's act The Triffids. Indeed, all those feelings are laid bare on standouts 'Goodbye And Godspeed' and 'Ophelia'. Sensitively produced with subtle use of echo, 'Fever Dreams' is a return to the more innocent times of atmospheric pop.

- via Leonard's Lair