Camera Obscura Records
1999
The Mystic River Sound
About This Album
On their second full-length album, Abunai! do the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Clubs Band one better. Or, rather, 11 better. Instead of taking on the identity of another band, Abunai! take on the identities of a dozen different bands, each with a different style. Abunai! Presents the Mystic River Sound, therefore, acts like a mock battle of the bands compilation, complete with liner notes that expound on the elaborate history and mysteries of the Mystic River collective of bands, supposedly (if you are able to decipher the storyline espoused in the liner notes) based in the suburbs around Boston (Abunai!, in fact, calls Boston home). Of course, to pull off such an ambitious concept, the music has to excel, and the band has to be entirely convincing in their different guises or else it just comes off like kids playing dress-up, with lipstick smeared all over their faces. In other words, it would be very easy for the whole concept to meander out of control and get messy. Abunai! does not allow that to happen, though, in part due to the fact that all the "bands," be they '60s garage bands or '90s psychsters, have ties to the Mystic River sound and therefore are spiritual descendents peers with one another.
Track List (try tracks 2,4,6,7,8,9 and 11)

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