propaganda
A review of "Rain Dancing"
I know a lot of bands in Arizona that are producing great music, but there is one band that in particular that is producing truly great art. And in the tradition of truly great artists who defy convention and expectation, The Bittersweet Way's debut is a completely different creature from what many were eagerly anticipating.
Previously released songs (take for example "Suicide Love Song" from Worthless Records' "Rage vol. 2.0 or Velvet Blue Music's "Unsigned Band Compilation) hinted that the band may be following the lead of Sunny Day real Estate or "Gold"-era Starflyer 59, but "Rain Dancing" reveals that The Bittersweet Way has pared down its songs to their most elemental components, perfected them, and recorded them in a brilliantly simplistic, lo-fi style.
It is an approach that few bands take, preferring to hide poorly crafted songs behind walls of expensive, pretentious production. But "Rain Dancing" finds Bittersweet Way frontman Jedidiah Foster laying his music, and in the process his soul, bare before all the world.
Aware of the risk of overstatement here, I will simply say that this CD may very well be the single best CD produced by an Arizona artist in the last year. Simple, subtle songs build upon their own sonic craftsmanship while the melodies ebb and flow like an ocean wave, alternately drawing the listener in only to come crashing down unexpectedly.
True, there are only the aforementioned previously hinted hues of shoe-gazing pop bands like Ride, Low, or Starflyer, but The Bittersweet Way's songs defy the conventions of this genre with riffs that are meticulously basic, yet almost hypnotic (dare I say "psychedelic"?) in their dissonance.
-Geoff Brown in ACN