Flight Patterns by Rarebirds

Rarebirds debut album.
Recorded summer of 2004 in Philadelphia PA by Bill Moriarty.

"McNeel doesn't resort to a lot of studio tricks or flashy rock star moves, but if she has a signature guitar style — one that's followed her from April Disaster to Rarebirds — it's the chimey alternating of thick and thin strings heard on "Love Letters In Morse Code." The clean channel groove of low and high notes instills a textured depth into even the sparest music. (This is one of those bands that knows how to play quietly.) Still, Flight Patterns, suavely fleshed out by trumpet, singing saw and glockenspiel, is hardly an exercise in understatement.
At the center of it is McNeel's warm, ghostly voice. She doesn't allow herself an embellished roar, but when the music swells, she does rise above. And that's when you realize her lyrics are as abstract and complex as her arrangements."
-Patrick Rapa, Philadelphia City Paper February 2005.

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