Honest truth: I am a sophomore release hater.  I do not know when it happened or for what reason, but suddenly and quite viciously, I one day realized that I preferred a debut release from almost each and every band.  In my second year as a music writer, it’s been hard for me to go back to bands I discovered in the first as I was almost angry at the waning creative output.  There have been fights and things thrown as I’ve stubbornly refused to acknowledge the new music of a one-time favorite band.  I am a hard-headed bull.

Thus, I’ve waited for The Cave Singers Welcome Joy to percolate a bit, to sit on a shelf and accrue its hype or hate.  I wanted to come in to this album bereft of preordained hatred.  And oh how glad I am that I took this Cave Singers’ sabbatical, as the new album, with Pete Quirk’s endearingly nasally vocals, is a warm robe, a quiet reminder of why I loved this band so much. At one time I thought this might be an album of sea shanties, but I blame this on a captain’s hat Quirk wore at one live show and the fact that the first song released was called “Beach House.”

Ahoy, no sea shanty here, just solid porch music, happily jug-dancing on your ears.

The Cave Singers - At The Cut