THE VOYCES: Press & Fanmail

"One of the top 10 albums of 2009"

"The lyrics (to Let Me Die In Southern California) were clearly given to you by God..."

Dearest Voyces,

 

   Congratulations on your new album. I haven't stopped listening to it since it arrived in the mail. Brilliant! Your best album yet!

Hi Voyces,

 

I love your new album so much. It is beautiful and classic in every way. I love the lyrics. They are so much better than most of the lyrics I ever hear anymore. Brian you are such a poet. And your voices are gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous!!! What an achievement.

I love you Voyces.

so i'm listening to your cd over and over again for days straight and i keep wondering why the hell you don't make a trip down under because they would love you here. come on now.

Your latest is blowin my freakin mynd.

Read it here.

The tracks below, from New York quartet The Voyces have been floating the internet for awhile, but I wanted to mention how good they are today.  The mellowed out, openly nostalgic vibe of “Let Me Die in Southern California” is perfect for the oncoming autumn.  It sounds, to me, like what The Eagles could have sounded like if they didn’t suck so hard.  (I had a rough night and I hate the fucking Eagles man.)  “You Can Never Know” works in the same mode; working its way into your brain with its gentle harmonies and persistent groove.  I haven’t listened to the rest of the record that these two tracks come from, but I’m going to, because I’m certain I’m going to dig it.

Brilliant restyling of 1970s California soft-rock and folk-pop

The Voyces are a New York-based group fronted by former Californian Brian Wurschum, and including co-vocalist Jude Kastle. Despite his West-to-East migration, Wurschum’s musical ethos remains deeply rooted in the sounds of California pop, drawing heavily on the vibes of 1970s acts like Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles. Not that the Voyces sound like either of these acts, but they do offer a similar warmth in mesmerizing harmonies, and laidback tempos that are more ocean breeze than traffic jam. The high edge of Wurschum’s lead vocals may remind you of Matthew Sweet’s Girlfriend-era singing and, but if you’re memory’s good enough they’ll also suggest singer-songwriter Moon Martin.

After a brief instrumental, the title track opens the album with a letter of longing for the Golden State; trimmed from six minutes to three and sent back in time this could be a huge radio hit in 1976. Wurshum’s sings double-tracked as he escapes into the desert, finds freedom along the highway and immerses himself in the spirituality of coastal waves. The song’s loping rhythm and compressed lead guitar are perfectly complemented by sharp hi-hat strikes and acoustic strums, all played by Wurschum, who manned all of the instruments on the album. The overdubbing gives the album a homemade sound that may remind you of Shoes’ Black Vinyl Shoes and the Posies’ Failure.

Wurschum and Kastle sing of romantic uncertainty, shadowing one another in close harmony on “If I am Not Your Everything, Baby I’m Not Anything,” and accompanied by a heavy bass line, wah-wah rhythm guitar and buzzing Neil Young-styled lead on a remake of Majority Dog’s “Finest Hour.” The album’s love songs, such as “You Can Never Know,” are written and sung as secret professions, filled with earnest emotion that’s cut in half by diffidence. Adolescent angst has grown into adult doubts, and the caffeinated agitation of power-pop has resolved into faithlessness. Wurschum’s repetition of title lyrics and chorus hooks gives these songs a measure of self pity that’s cannily effective in conveying despair.

The album’s sequencing provides several effective transitions, binding the songs into an album. The short acoustic guitar instrumental “La Lonita” provides a restful interlude between the electric guitar that closes “Finest Hour” and the complex vocal harmonies that open “You Can Never Know.” The yearning vocal fade of “You Can Never Know” in turn gives way to the plucked electric guitar and punchy bass and drums of “The Speed of Fear.” These segues draw the ear and mind from one song to the next, much like the crossfades of Pink Floyd’s classic 1970s albums. The closing “It Whispers” is particularly Floyd-like, with a trudging tempo, lengthy guitar solo and a keening vocal that suggests David Gilmour.

The group’s previous releases foreshadowed many of the sounds employed here, but Wursham’s new songs are more intense, the instrumentals rocked up from the folky vibe of 2006’s Love Arcade, and the double-tracked vocals have lost the bubblegum sound evident on “Kissing Like It’s Love” (the best Archies track never actually recorded by the Archies). This is a superbly crafted album, filled with beautiful voices, solid pop-rock playing, thoughtful lyrics and a touch of bedroom production that wraps the album in a shy sweetness. Fans of early ‘70s radio pop (the AM moment between the hippie meltdown and the corporate arena takeover), California production rock, and late-70s power pop will truly love these golden sounds. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

The Voyces
Let Me Die in Southern California

I have to admit, this isn’t the easiest album to review. As you might imagine, Let Me Die in Southern California isn’t the most uplifting album I’ve ever heard. Much of it certainly requires mood that you have to be in to feel it, and when you’re in a sad, down in the dumps mood, it feels right. Think of August and Everything After by the Counting Crows, which is of course a great album for when you want to listen to it, but chances are you only put it on if you’re in that frame of mind.

 

Let Me Die in Southern California is The Voyces latest album (they have four previous). The tracks crafted by singer/songwriter Brian Wurschum are reminiscent of many well-respected classic rock artists. You’ll hear the sounds of Cat Stevens, Fleetwood Mac, Simon & Garfunkel, and Heart to name a few. What will last with the listener are the vocals of Wurschum and Jude Kastle. Together they provide a softness and beauty throughout the album that really isn’t heard enough anymore. 

 

There are really two types of songs that on this album; the acoustic, melodic ones, and the retro rock jams. The acoustic ones have harmonious vocals, beautiful guitar parts, and are filled with emotion. What I tend to enjoy more, is the rock tracks. The title track and “Finest Hour” both have some 70’s style to them, while album closer “It Whispers” gives you the best of both worlds. 

 

On Let Me Die in Southern California, The Voyces give you enough variety and craftsmanship to keep you entertained throughout. Whether you’re ready for a ballad or some rock, there is a little something for you, just be prepared for the mood some of the songs will put you in.

 

Kevin Kozel-MuzikReviews.com Staff

 

The Voyces new album Kissing Like Its Love on Planting Seeds Records is.... in a word: Fantastic. The Voyces sound like The Magic Numbers, if they were to record live in a garage or something. The blending harmonies and wistful lyrics play on the way the music calmly rushes over you. In all honesty, its wave of pure joy. Pure absolute joy. While the band is young and just starting up (professionally), they have a mature sound that brings them to a new level of the music world, taking the fantasies of the late '60s/early '70s and transforming them into a modern work of art.

My favourite track is by number 3: You're in Charge of Driving the Narcotics Trolley, with its very distinct (be it unintentional) homage to The Magic Numbers. Perfect if you're looking for something to dance in your room or car to.

This is an album that I was hoping would blow me out of the water. After hearing the title track on a podcast, I was chomping at the bit to get the album in for review. The title track opens the album and although I hadn't heard it for a few weeks, indeed since the podcast, it was even better second time around, with a melody that seduces and a lyric that bores it's way into your brain.

Upon hearing the rest of the album, I was disappointed as it had steered in a totally different direction. Not that the rest of the album isn't great. Indeed had this album been submitted without the title track, I would still have given it a great review. It's just that the opener is an absolute scorcher and maybe should have been left to the latter part of the album.

Aside from the aforementioned track, the album has distinctly folksy, Simon and Garfunkel sound, which in itself is a great thing. The music is great, but it's the vocals and amazing harmonies that make this album shine. There's a very interesting track "Lovers in the Sky" which reminds me greatly of a Leonard Cohen song, which name escapes me.

The end of this 10 track album comes with the track "Where the Little Girls Still Throw Roses", a mouthful of a title, but with a sweet almost Cat Stevens sound. Killer leads in, sweet and mellow fades to black.

Conclusion : You can approach this album in two ways. As a killer track with some great follow on songs, or a great folksy album, with an additional killer track. I think I prefer the latter description and indeed this album grows on me, the more I play it. I would love to see however, some more killer tracks on the next album. I suppose that easier said than done.

Kissing Like It's Love, The Voyces
To drill to its heart, you have to stop hitting the repeat button on the insanely catchy Archies-meet-Fleetwood Mac beach-party title track and explore the rest of the record. Because it's the penultimate song, the shapeshifting, tawny-lustered "The Canyon Ladies" that betrays The Voyces' aesthetic and conceptual anxieties. Like the aforementioned Forever Changes, this LP tells tales from the dark side of the California dream that collapsed some 40 years ago. Even if The Voyces' album starts with an optimistic shrug, proceeds to a sumptuary of hopeless love ("Hair Up High"), get darker with an anxious, staccattoed Bee Gees' impersonation ("You're In Charge of Driving the Narcotics Trolley"), it ends its pilgrimage gasping for air in a shabby lean-to. (The band lists The Eagles as their first influence, so this might be its "Hotel California.") Denouement "Where the Little Girls Still Throw Roses," is half-drugged and half-hoped, hallucinating rose girls, demon lovers and houses without hearts. If you crave less ambivalence, return to track one immediately.

The Voyces -Kissing Like It's Love
Planting Seeds Records

This second disc from the NYC-via-Southern California Voyces is a quietly impressive collection of graceful, pastoral pop that sounds emotionally deeper with each listen and more expertly crafted as well.


Twenty-year old photos of songwriter Brian Wurschum alongside his suburban metalhead buddies attest to his vintage, as does the hilariously comprehensive list of 70s and 80s AOR heroes he cites as influences elsewhere. And though most of the material on Kissing Like It's Love seems fairly straightforward, there is the sense that someone avidly tending an unconditional, decades-long pop-song love affair is behind the whole thing. Wurschum’s songwriting sounds like it’s been whittled down over the course of time, with the thrill of those old favorites still fresh in his mind, their various excesses purged.


The mixture of innocence, romance and sharp emotion that makes the Pernice Brothers a perennial boon to heartsick pop fans (who’re still hopeful enough to keep seeking out crushing melodies) is at work on beautiful stuff like “Hair Up High” and the sublime “Call it Home,” but songs as strong as these eclipse any stylistic similarities. This is mature, well rounded stuff and although words like ‘maturity’ and

‘restraint’ may sound like dowdy qualities for a musician, in the hands of someone with something to say and the patience to find the right words and hooks to say it with, those qualities are just more muscles to flex.


The band finds an interesting vein of bombast to mine in “The Canyon Ladies,” conjuring a dramatic melodic arc out of a simple set of chords and stirring dynamics; it sounds like an unfairly leftover brick from Pink Floyd’s The Wall. I’m still not sure how I feel about the minimal acoustic funk-strut of “You’re In Charge of Driving the Narcotics Trolley, and You’re Doing an Excellent Job,” but it’s very possible I like it a whole lot, and not only because the title helps me fill my minimum-word quota for this review.


Wurschum’s perfectly complimentary production, his heartfelt lyrics and unique, elfin voice seal the deal, especially on stuff like the warm, chummy kinda-Country of “Top of My Lungs” and the delirious title song. All of Kissing Like It's Love, apart from the ugly cover shot of two colliding faces, is loveable - it’s exceptional in fact. And all this on a musical diet rich in the Eagles, Journey and Scorpions, too. It’s a little bit of second hand redemption for those dinosaurs, I guess, and a whole lotta new interest for a young-at-heart band from New York called the Voyces.

THE VOYCES
KISSING LIKE IT'S LOVE (PLANTING SEEDS)


So what should we expect from a band called The Voyces? Angelic harmonies? Celestial choirs? A warehouse worth of pretense? Actually, none of the above. Fortunately, in this case, the results trump any actual expectation. What we end up getting is one beautiful record, with at least nine out of ten tracks that rank as genuine keepers. With their third album, The Voyces have crafted a beguiling array of supple soft rock melodies that flow as if in a gentle cascade, creating an aura that’s unfailingly easy on the ears. There’s a sense that these Voyces are indeed eternal, especially when it comes to lending that fresh, ebullient glow. The title track starts the progression off with a cheery tone, leading into a mellow succession of wistful ruminations. “Top of My Lungs,” “The Canyon Ladies,” “Humming” and “Hair Up High” evoke the gentle gaze of America - the group that is, not our conflict-ridden country - and carry a similar subdued caress. Charming and disarming, Kissing Like It’s Love delivers instant infatuation.

In their new single “Kissing Like It’s Love,” the New York-based Voyces offer a similarly innocent take on the dynamics of kissing, a breezy taxonomy that paints the practice as all sultry and desultory, fit for warm summer nights and roofs and “city’s lights.” Unlike their fuzzy, folky 2003 album The Angels of Fun, the Voyces’s recent work is light and snappy; their songs are as simple and sugary as they say kissing is. Kissing is, after all, only for kissing’s sake: “true love’s too rough,” they chant, “so kiss me like it’s love.” That which is like something cannot be that thing; nobody here’s in love, but nobody seems to mind, either. Love is best, they hint, when it’s feigned, when it’s all “Coppertone and firewood” and kisses.

The Voyces want you to think that they’ve been influenced by Simon & Garfunkel. This is true on the opening title track, a very precious pop gem that would fit perfectly on an album by the Connells. Lead singer Brian Wurschum has that sweet, earnest tone in his voice that often sells the song with ease. The Voyces want you think they’ve also have been influenced by the Beatles. Yes, this too is true on “Hair Up High”, a slow but gorgeous nugget. But they are at their best when combining these influences, as in the case of the infectious “You’re in Charge of Driving the Narcotics Trolley, and You’re Doing an Excellent Job”. California pop is another important part of the band, particularly on “Lovers in the Sky”, which falls somewhere between solo Tom Petty and Matthew Sweet. Even throwaway tracks like “Please Wash Away” are fabulous, despite clocking just over two minutes. The only stretch on the record is “The Canyon Ladies”, but most will even cozy up to this winding track. A very sweet, soft and fragile album in the best way possible.

The Voyces' Brian Wurschum doesn't have the most powerful voice in pop music, but the way he uses it is indeed quite appealing. With the musician often registering in the higher range, the singer seems to nail a sweet, sugar-coated and cavity-inducing pop gem like the title track perfectly. Cheerful, bouncy and infectious, the tune sets Kissing Like It's Love off on the right course, bringing to mind equally adept power pop maestros like Jeremy Morris and more obscure bands like Cool Blue Halo. Sweet is an adjective best describing most of the album, especially the slower but pretty "Hair Up High" that has gorgeous harmonies from Jude Kastle. The oddly titled "You're in Charge of Driving the Narcotics Trolley, And You're Doing an Excellent Job" is a quirky but pleasing bit of pop. Breezy California pop would be another apt description of the songs, especially "Call It Home," which seems to conjure up images of Bread and Cat Stevens. Fans of Roger McGuinn and Tom Petty circa "Wildflowers" would seek comfort and joy in "Humming" which definitely causes the listener to hum along without much coaxing. The album closes with two lengthier pieces, including "The Canyon Ladies" which starts off with a spacy feel before Wurschum brings it back into his niche. The same can be said of the lullaby-like "Where the Little Girls Still Throw Roses." ~ Jason MacNeil, All Music Guide

Sometimes it’s nice not to have to interpret your music. Just let it come, and be a part of the day. Voyces is that kind of band. Light, almost folk-y rock. Check out Kissing Like It’s Love, the obvious single off of “Get Him, Eat Him.” If the 1970s starlight-and-moonbeam vocals don’t pull you in, make sure you stick around until the incredibly intricate, beautiful guitar break, which features one of the best gentle solos I’ve heard in a long while. If you are a big fan of Rhino’s “Hit Sounds of the 70s,” then you won’t want to miss this album. Songs like Top of My Lungs would clearly have been huge hits back then, both because of the musical style and the refrain (“I’ll be all right again, baby, soon as I get back home . . .”) Check it out on a rainy Sunday.

For fans of: Belle & Sebastian, Magic Numbers.

P.S. Thanks to Amy for turning me on to this band. Her review is better than mine, too, so go read it!