There's a certain strain of indie rock that excels at exuberance. From Built to Spill's "In the Morning" to Modest Mouse's "Doin' the Cockroach" to Pavement's "Stereo", you can get some serious uplift from chiming guitars, a ramshackle rhythm section, quiet/loud dynamics, and a dude who's ready to put it all out there vocally, even if he's not Jeff Buckley. New York's Cymbals Eat Guitars, whose remarkably assured debut album Why There Are Mountains came out digitally recently, understand something about the infectious spirit of that era. Mountains' "Wind Phoenix" is just a bit over five minutes long, but it feels like three great songs climbing all over each other that somehow manage to exceed the sum of their parts. Opening with a jubilant horn refrain, it skips along on a tuneful melody, slows down, ramps up to a climax, sticks with it for a while, and then crashes back down to its opening section. It's breathless, forceful, loose but not sloppy, and brimming with a sense of joy. Singer Joseph Ferocious says something about an "Ikea finery" and watching Notre Dame; the details aren't all clear, but you get a sense of someone fighting hard to get it all in. With so many ideas and feelings spilling out at once, there's not a song built that can quite contain them -www.pitchforkmedia.com
01. And the Hazy Sea
02. Some Trees03. Indiana
04. Cold Spring
05. Share
06. What Dogs See
07. Wind Phoenix
08. The Living North
09. Like Blood Does
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