A Cast of Thousands received an excellent review of their new album in the most recent issue of Big Takeover Magazine by Mark Suppanz. Check it out below…
A Cast of Thousands
Songs from the Second Floor
(Records Records)
On their eighth album, this Auburn/Finger Lakes, NY outfit, led by husband and wife co-lead singers Terry Cuddy and Beth Beer, further sharpens the stylistic breadth shown on 2019’s Sleeping World. So much so, the first three tracks each sound like different bands: “No Detection” is burbly, Wire-meets-Devo new wave and krautrock, “Decades” is an airy, theatrical, piano-led waltz, and “Heading Nowhere Again” is “Everybody’s Talkin” hued folk-rock with psychedelic shading. On the second half, the crunchy Visqueen-esque rocker “Astrological Signs” and speedier, Rezillos-like “Holiday in Amerika” are balanced by two alluring, Susanna Hoffs-evoking ballads crooned by Beer, “Red Line” and “Hyper Individual.” While the LP is named for Roy Andersson’s bleak 2000 Swedish black comedy, and its lyrics seem inspired by the film’s story of an abandoned society’s loss of hope and communal connection, the music is always radiant and engaging.
—Mark Suppanz, The Big Takeover, Issue No. 91