This disc is a guilty pleasure - you know, sort of the way you watch "Sesame Street" when nobody else is home.
Ed's Redeeming Qualities take the niceness of old ladies in the park and the musical instruments of a pawn shop and with them approach songs about everyday life. They do this with the same earnest wonder that children have when they ask why the sky is blue.
Subjects for their songs can range anywhere from the name Bob to the relationship that exists between grating cheese and chipping teeth to getting pegged in the head with a lawn dart. The principle instruments on this recording are acoustic guitar, violin, ukelele and rice in a coffee can. Nobody sings that great and often the harmonies are off. Needless to say, they're incredible.
The band is Carrie Bradley, Dan Leon and Neno Perrotta. By day they are writers - by night they weave quirky little narrative tales about things that happen to them and you and me and everybody around sparse musical arrangements. It's a little like beat poetry only there's no coffee and everybody bathes.
By staying a lot left of center, Ed's Redeeming Qualities have landed right on track. After all, like More Bad Times, life is about being scared, pretty girls, and best of all, is generally a little out of tune.
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