City of Burbank
Recorded, produced, engineered and mastered by H.A. Eugene at Audio Box Studios in San Francisco
H.A. Eugene’s love of airports, Burbank International’s sound is as eclectic and multidimensional as an airport itself. With their debut album, City of Burbank, the San Francisco-based rock band manages to create something more than an album, rather they release an emotive and often humorous collection of unique experiences.
The album opens with two distinctly different tracks. “Now I’m Serious” combines ambient chimes on a low-key vibe, creating a compellingpiece suitable for a movie soundtrack. In contrast, “Chicken Shoals” offers a much more upbeat and bouncy experience. The album takes an introspective turn on “Who’s That Girl?” an incredibly strong song with gritty vocals, keys and haunting strings weaving in and out through the background. The band’s tongue-in-cheek humor is evident on tracks like “Charlie Jerk that Yolk” and “Drinking On An Empty Stomach,” the latter utilizing a clever inclusion of censorship bleeps. On “Tenderloin,” Eugene pays homage to his home city with an intimate guitar and vocals track, a song stripped down to its most soulful essentials. But “Laudanum” may very well be the album’s most memorable song, and it serves as the height of the album’s expressiveness. Amidst steady guitars and a beautifully eerie repeating warble, industrialized beats enter with a rhythm often independent of the track, breaking free at times to create their own sense of identity. It’s musical liberation at its best, the defiance of standards within the confines of standards.
City of Burbank is an album almost impossible to tire from. With a unique combination of ambiance, dramatic musical voices and strong songwriting, Burbank International has created an effort capable of sustaining prolonged flight. (self released)
-Keane Li
myspace.com/burbankinternational
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