This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
“It’s hard to say when we came of age,” muses Telepathic Butterflies frontman Rejean Ricard on their sophomore CD.
Maybe it’s hard for him. For anyone listening to the Winnipeg band’s latest album Songs From A Second Wave, the answer is painfully obvious. And I do mean painfully. These dozen ambitious tracks capture the psychedelic retro-popsters at the height of their powers and — if Ricard’s lyrics are based in reality — the depths of despair. Infidelity and betrayal, abandonment and longing, regret and nostalgia, guilt and jealousy; these are the emotions that fuel cuts like Angry Young Man, Rescue Mission and The Guilty Party.
Remarkably, though — and most importantly — Songs From A Second Wave is no pity party. Time and again, the musical elements — the strum ’n’ jangle guitars, the rich tapestry of hooky melodies and lush harmonies, the spry bouncy grooves — conspire to create a sunny musical disposition that banishes Ricard’s dark lyrical clouds. If you weren’t paying close attention, you’d swear these lovingly crafted, crisply tight ’n’ bright nuggets of British Invasion pop add up to one of happiest albums of the year. But of course, not paying attention to music this captivating is impossible.
So who cares when the Butterflies came of age? What matters is they clearly have. And with Songs From A Second Wave, they are just as clearly poised to soar.
