Everyday I Said a Prayer for Kathy and Made a One Inch Square
Label: Empyrean
Length: LP
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: Everyday I Said a Prayer for Kathy and Made a One Inch Square
These prodigal indie-pop pioneers return nearly four years after their disastrous major-label flirtation. While they may have learned a lesson or two regarding their business affairs (namely: Enthusiastic adoration among the cognoscenti doesn’t mean that, with corporate muscle, your gentle, quirky music will suddenly become popular), the core duo of drummer Brendan Harney and guitarist/vocalist Scott Levesque has changed little about their approach to spacious, melancholy pop. Which is quite heartening, since their difficultly titled new album easily could have been an attempt to avenge their commercial losses of 2003. Instead, Everyday is a relaxed and organic expansion of Wheat’s sound that benefited greatly from its casual, no-pressure recording sessions; taking place over the last couple of years, those sessions found Harney and Levesque writing and recording with no big-money A&R guy over their shoulders asking for things to be sweetened up. Accordingly, Everyday is a little rough around the edges, occasionally disjointed, often noisy and frequently knocking on the door of pop perfection.
This article appears in Jun 13-19, 2007.