{grate 3.5} As suggested by the instruments scattered on the CD’s inside
sleeve, excluding the naked women on the cover, Throw Me the Statue’s Moonbeams
features a synth keyboard’s sundry sounds, a melodica’s distinctive high pitch
and a bass guitar’s infectious ambience that mixes it up on every track.
Hailing from the ever-evolving
music scene, the nearly one-man band of Scott Reitherman dabbles with genres
ranging from Shins and Clap Your Hands-esque indie pop to more folky tones that
evoke Venezuelan extraordinaire Devendra Banhart. Properly sprinkled with the
chipper tune of a glockenspiel throughout the album, Moonbeams leaves you
yearning for lazy afternoon naps or bicycle rides down to Black’s Beach.
Rather than lagging with an overindulgent one-minute buildup
into the first track, “Young Sensualists” immediately introduces an up-tempo
synth keyboard melody, tossing listeners back into ninth grade, where they
first held hands with their lusty, pubescent lovers. Keeping up with the
never-too-cute yet never-too-serious theme, “Lolita” is a shoulder-moving
carousel of mixed percussions for those too shy to dance with the crowd.
Although it still features the delightful, nostalgic glockenspiel, “Conquering
Kids” strays from indie and electro conventions and instead embraces subtle,
sultry lead guitar in the vein of Jack Johnson. Perhaps the most striking
resemblance, however, is Reitherman’s voice to that of Casiotone for the
Painfully Alone’s Owen Ashworth. It’s especially true in “Yucatan Gold,” where
he falls out of key but returns to form before the smartly symphonic end.
Moonbeams shouldn’t be mistaken as an unorganized mess;
rather it’s an eclectic, polished arrangement of Crayola crayon ditties
intertwined with bushy bearded folk tunes that deserves every bit of attention
the cover’s naked women do.
