Hometowns in Bloomington, MN

With a name like the
Rural Alberta Advantage
and a debut album called
Hometowns
, one would hope for an unpretentious collection of amiable
indie pop
tunes filtered through the wistful lens of a
Wes Anderson
film, and that's exactly what you get. Singer/songwriter
Nils Edenloff
, along with
Amy Cole
and
Paul Banwatt
, craft lovelorn postcards to small town heartache, beloved and embittered friends and family, blue collar hardships, and the great big world around them with the kind of wide-eyed gusto that's extremely effective when played in front of a hundred sweaty, dancing kids at a house show in somebody's rented basement, but dribbles out of a pair of headphones like a leaky faucet. All too often, that energy is lost when a talented young band like this enters the studio, and
RAA
do their best to transcend the limitations of their home recorded calling card, but that energy eating reaper follows
around like a cop car on a Saturday night. If there was an award for "Most likeable album of 2009",
would win by a landslide. Nice try. Can't wait to hear the next one. ~ James Christopher Monger