Month: November 2014

Rating:

Little Cinema is the project of Hollywood Gossip’s Tyler Womack and The Lovely Sparrow’s Shawn Jones. Adventure is their debut album under this moniker, one of which that combines detailed songwriting accompanied by the well-crafted instrumentation of these two gentleman. This ten track record is filled with spunky and witty indie-pop ditties about pretty much everything from bird watching to fire safety and everything else along the ways of a proper Adventure.

The group opens quite bouncily with “Over The Garden,” a track whose brevity and seeming simplicity serves as a tasty introduction to the sounds of Little Cinema. Though, while the combination of woodsy percussion, acoustic guitar and nasal vocals sounds stripped at first, when you start to really listen you can hear this undercurrent of gentle cello that runs underneath the rest of the instruments’ vibrant bubbling. This number is short and sweet, but simultaneously has this finesse about it—be it in the lyrics or the subtleties in the instrumentation that pushes through—that peaks your interest in what this band has in store for you.

They push forward into the body of their debut quickly and with grace with numbers such as “Diving Board—” which features the lovely vocals of Dana Falconberry for that always-appealing interchanging male/female duo. This song describes a night of skinny-dipping and breaking and entering, accompanied by none other than handclaps. Yea, you heard right, handclaps!!! Interestingly enough, this, as well as other standout number “Birdwatchers of the World, Unite!” features the percussion of Shivery Shakes drummer, Marcus Haddon. His contribution is notable on both of these tracks, adding an element of jazzy sheen to the mix of things.

When you reach the end of the Adventure that Little Cinema has taken you on, with “Fire Safety,” you don’t feel quite ready to stop listening to this album. The last track is one of the best you’ll encounter on this record in that it combines all the elements that you’ve already fallen in love with thus far on the record. The bounciness from the beginning is there in fully fleshed out percussion, Womack’s songwriting is effortless and detailed, and the vocals are pushed to their emotive brink as the song progresses. There are moments of softness and delicacy that are juxtaposed with moments when the instruments all combine alongside the intensity in the vocals—both of which gives you something to hold on tightly to keep up with the band. Adventure is an exciting and promising start for Little Cinema and I look forward to seeing what they give us next.