More ebullient than Belle And Sebastian, less catholic than Peter Bjorn And John and just as tightly tethered to new-wave artifice as the Magnetic Fields, Seattle’s Throw Me The Statue only seems like your average indie-rock sprawlathon. But hiding behind seven other players (who contribute violin, euphonium, trumpet, melodica and more) is singer/songwriter Scott Reitherman. On this debut album, he’s unafraid to tap into the tender turns of B&S or the jaunty pop of PB&J, and he tends to cut his dulcet melodies with the corrosive, dissonant synthetics of Stephin Merritt’s side projects. “Yucatan Gold” fuses distorto-guitar crunch and jangling synth, while “This Is How We Kiss” joyfully embraces the sweetly jagged edges of late-’70s primitive pop/punk. “A Mutinous Dream” closes with electronic sputters and jerks before floating into the glockenspiel-spattered “Your Girlfriend’s Car,” which resembles a dreamy outtake from the Shins’ Oh, Inverted World. Rightly so: Reitherman is the latest Northwestern heir to an indie-songsmith tradition buttressed by such disparate voices as James Mercer, Doug Martsch and Isaac Brock. Yet TMTS carves out its own niche, drawing from a broader palette of musical colors. Coasting on a languid willingness to work with happy mistakes and discoveries, Reitherman and Co. are ready to break from the pack. [www.secretlycanadian.com]
—Kimberly Chun
