“Take it down and tear it apart.” Busses frontman Dave Brett delivers
the words like a mission statement on “Metal,” a new song announcing
a step forward for a band that's made its name around its native
Philadelphia for stretching the parameters of indie rock. Both that
song and “Shangrila” capture the trio at ease, leisurely adrift,
stretching out grooves and suspending melodies in between. Bright
chords drift out of Brett’s guitar amp bathed in warm colors as his
elastic voice reaches into higher registers while Jason Bachman’s
pillowy synthesizer and bass set a pulse reinforced by Nick Apice’s
shuffling, syncopated drumming. It’s a bold step away from the punk
and progressive rock influences worn proudly and unpredictably on its
eponymous debut, but that’s not to say the band has lost its taste for
the bombastic. It's just that now, the music swells into overdrive
where it may have once sprinted, inviting us to savor the ride.