| December 7 - 14 , 1 9 9 5 |
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**1/2 Saturnine WRECK AT PILLAR POINT
(DIRT)
There's no getting around
Saturnine's resemblance to a certain Boston outfit that borrowed freely from
the plaintive folky side of the
Velvet Underground and
R.E.M.'s muted drones in
the late '80s -- Galaxie 500.
Matt Gallaway addresses abstract doubts and vague
psychodramas with the same combination of aloof intensity and languid melodies
that Luna/Galaxie 500 frontman Dean Wareham favored. And his voice tends to
crack in the same places -- right before the overall mood becomes too precious
-- with the same self-consciously disarming effect. The guitars of Gallaway and
Jennifer Baron seek out the kind of understated hooks that always seem to lurk
beneath simple minor-key drones. And drummer Jim Harwood never rushes them
along. Saturnine aren't ashamed of their roots. Gallaway even quotes
R.E.M. in
the outro of the aching "Summertime Was a Waste," substituting "If I could be
your camera" for the song's mumbled chorus. They just seem happy to revive the
stark and subtle moodiness that
R.E.M. have mostly abandoned in their middle
age.
-- Matt Ashare
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