INFINITE ELLIPSE AND HEAD WITH OPEN FONTANEL

3.5 stars. MAKE A RISING are a band out of Philadelphia who released two studio albums, the debut in 2005 and this second record in 2008. They would follow this one up a few years later with an EP, followed by several singles in the mid 10's before vanishing. This is a very talented band who combine pop with avant with the best of them. This style is a tough sell for me but there's lots to like here.

Lots of vocals as we get those BEACH BOY harmonies. In fact there are seven guest vocalists including Mary Halvorson helping with that. Lots of guest musicians too adding cello, double bass, trombone, marimba, flute and sax. The six piece band here also add a lot of instruments with a couple of the guys being multi-instrumentalists. The keyboardist playing a saxaflute(haha), actually somewhere else it's called a bamboo saxaphone, the bass player adding trumpet, one of the guitarists adds violin. There's a clarinet player as part of this six piece as well.

Lots and lots of instruments on this strange, strange album. It doesn't sound like there's a lot of instruments though. Not into the cover art or title. Yeah both are over my head to be honest. These guys do come across as a bunch of University students too smart for their own good with endless energy. The visual seems to be as important as the audio with the costumes they wear. Under 51 minutes with no highlights as far as songs go but each of the ten tracks are impressive. Just not my music. Gotta love the accordion led section on "Transmutation". The kids singing that line over and over to end the album is funny.

Everyone seems to like this album except for myself and a few other losers. Not a four star album in my world but impressive enough to add the half star. And better than their EP.