MILO GREENE - Milo Greene

The impression, listening to this "Milo Greene", is that very soon no one will feel the need to specify that this is the name of a band. In this quintet of Americans - scattered across various states and brought together via the internet - four of them sing, often simultaneously, all more or less multi-instrumentalists, and their music essentially fuses all the traits currently favored by audiences.

Let's put together the groove of Fleetwood Mac, their male-female harmonies ("What's The Matter With You", "Take A Step", the best tracks), with the fluid vocal and guitar progressions of Fleet Foxes ("Son My Son", "Cutty Love"), add a post-rock-derived guitar style ("Don't You Give Up On Me"), by now rather cloying (those same stadium-sized Coldplay-isms, that forced sense of communion, an empty, endless crescendo), and there you have it: an essentially foretold indie phenomenon. A sort of American answer to Zulu Winter and Clock Opera.

That said, "Milo Greene" is by no means an unpleasant record, however raw the feelings it evokes may be, as in the Wilderness Of Manitoba-style harmonies of "Autumn Tree". It's precisely what audiences are asking for, with pinpoint precision - there's nothing wrong with that, in fact it's the Columbus's egg of the moment, but the truly talented ones naturally manage to do it with personality.

Every song on the record could provide the perfect closing moment for an episode of some TV series ("Silent Way", for instance; and in fact, it has already happened), just as Milo Greene could open for pretty much any of today's biggest indie bands, from Grizzly Bear to the Shins.

"Perfectly Aligned" says it all too, another track steeped in that same mix of melancholy and hope (of "real life", or so it's believed, and so they believe themselves) with which Dr. House watches the ambulance pull away at the end of the episode.

A supreme product of genetic engineering, "Milo Greene" also comes with a wonderfully colourful cover: lovely to look at, and great at grabbing attention too.

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23/07/2012