the morning benders - talking through tin cans

The Morning Benders have written some incredibly catchy tunes heavily influenced by Sgt. Pepper–era Beatles and Tom Petty. They also incorporate the breezy sound of late-sixties California pop bands to great effect. The songs are smart, tight, and confident, and have incredibly catchy choruses. The Benders are an indie-pop band with success written all over them in heavy marker. They also sound pretty similar to Ambulance, who came out with a smart, tight, and incredibly delicious album a few years back. I’d take Ambulance over these guys any day, but the Morning Benders have that vibe I like—easygoing yet driving, get-stuck-in-your-head but seemingly timeless—and it’s hard for an addict like me to ignore that. However, their strength is also their biggest weakness: When they veer away from their upbeat catchy pop-tune pattern (see the last few songs), it all collapses like a deck of cards into a morass of sound without any direction.