CD Review

Most bands end up with a convoluted past after years of success and failure, but Missouri’s Bockman’s Euphio has already been through the ringer by album two. When their 2002 debut, Ladies and Gentlemen of the FCC was released, they were still a five-piece, still in college, still establishing their identities, and still weighing life options. Now, with a self-proclaimed commitment, solidified four-piece line-up and a new album, they seem grounded and ready for the next stage of Bockman’s Euphio.

Layered with dreamy, waif-like harmonies and casual cinematic passages, gorjus: fighting Bockman’s euphio is a long, slow float atop a mammoth ocean. But with eleven tracks weighing in at close to seventy-five minutes, this ocean can easily drag you to the bottom with no air to breathe. There are moments of brillance - “Patience,” “Come Back (to this)”- where the blended voices envelop you and hover around the keyboard delicacies of Andrew Weir. When the band attains small glimpses of poignancy - "Blues Off,” “Pusher,” and “Away King," - with disjointed lyrics and vivid thematics. Though the continuously prolonged intros and overly-extended bridges with no end expose the band’s vulnerable infancy, and inevitably force the album to loose a vital focus.

Once they embrace the fact that their well-written, three-minute songs, can be captured in the studio as is, and still breathe freely for twenty minutes on stage, Bockman’s Euphio will have a promising future as a touring band…but also as a respected recording artist.