FRACT/ONS Review

Released and re-released, Boyhood has a history. In 2005 the album trickled into the market through Wichita's own Mayhaps Records, but gained more recognition with its re-released on 54 40' or Fight! The song "The Fences" was featured in the film "Never Mind the Fences," which documented the plight of the Wichita music scene in the late 90s. 

Boyhood roams through ideas of youth and aging, shifting mood, structure, and instrumentation along the way. "The Fences" opens the album with an acoustic tune turned orchestral gala. "Appalachia" floats around in a remembrance to the sway of a banjo melody. The nearly seven minute long "Coronation Day" moves from grit to pretty and back for a nearly three minute sing-a-long outro. 

The album shrieks and cries and whines and indulges in melody after melody. Eric Harvey of Pitchfork Magazine notes, "Expressionistic excess is the driving force behind the album." This is perhaps most engaging feature, yet may also biggest deterrent for some listeners. 

Recommended for fans of  The Arcade Fire, Built to Spill, The Flaming Lips.

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It may surprise some that Paper Airplanes, a three-to-six-piece, hails from Wichita, KS, not Montreal or Athens, GA. Never mind the plains are home to The Flaming Lips, to which Paper Airplanes has loosely been compared. The closest comparison we could find in the plains states is to a tornado, for the band can certainly pick up and toss around whatever instrument they wish and whip up a helluva storm when they’re in the mood. Their music can be likened to a cross between early-Built to Spill, the range and audaciousness of The Arcade Fire, the organic sensibilities of Ticonderoga and the playful abandon of Deerhoof.

Read the Pitchfork review.

Visit the group's Myspace.

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