The Belles - 'Omerta' (Eat Sleep Records)
2/5
By: Lauren Gallagher
It comes as no surprise that The Belles hail from the great, wide American plains of Kansas. They're lo-fi; the vocals have the nasal whine of a wannabe Neil Young. What more would you expect from a place as down-home as 'the Sunflower State'?
At first listen, 'Omerta' sounds like a not-so-cleverly-disguised cover of Oasis' (unforgivable) 'Don't Go Away', but soon an organ surfaces, reminding you of your favorite weepy Motown ballad, and confusion sets in. Bizarre? A bit. Inventive? We're not quite sure yet. Then the vocals of 'A Thousand Ships' warble over lackadaisical acoustic strumming, with atmospherics making you violently crave your Wilco.
Seemingly, The Belles bear the potential to go into any number of directions; perhaps they already have. This is, after all, the single. Maybe the more honed aesthetic is yet to come, but something about The Belles defies categorization and definition, and they probably like it that way.
Artists in this article: The Belles
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