The idea of the supergroup is as old and tired as the history of rock & roll itself. From the
Million Dollar Quartet
to
the Traveling Wilburys
, and on and on, the gathering of a few vaunted musicians is usually trumpeted as nothing short of a revelation. Hence the name "super" itself. Usually, it ends up being just a half-baked excuse to hang out and jam -- very rarely does anything much good come from these projects. That makes
BNQT
an enjoyable aberration, and their
Volume 1
album from 2017 is a snapshot of late-decade indie pop and rock at its best.
Midlake
's
Eric Pulido
is the ringleader; the rest of
forms the backbone and a cast of big-shot vocalists deliver the lyrical and melodic goods.
Franz Ferdinand
Alex Kapranos
,
Band of Horses
'
Ben Bridwell
Jason Lytle
of
Grandaddy
, and
Travis
frontman
Fran Healy
join
Pulido
by contributing two songs apiece, and each of them bring their A game. It's tempting to take each writer's contributions and pit them against each other's to see who did what best, but really, what's nice about the album is how well the tracks all fit together, even though they all have intrinsic differences. Part of this is down to having the
guys as the backing band on each song, the rest is down to
's skills as a ringleader. It sounds like the work of one band with five singers, even when the tracks are as different as
's stomping glam rock opener "Restart,"
Kapranos
' evil-sounding ballad "Hey Banana," or
Bridwell
's rambling '70s rock jam "Tara."
layers in loads of strings and horns throughout the record, giving it a widescreen, epic feel at times while still letting the singers' idiosyncrasies come through clearly. Some tracks are pure soft rock gold, like
's "Unlikely Force," some are orchestral ballads, like
Lytle
's "Failing at Feeling," and there's even a track that sounds like a loose and limber
Wilburys
' track,
's "Real Love." It's a remarkably coherent and listenable album that goes down very smooth, but not without the occasional moment of real emotion or foot-tapping fun. Credit
for making this group truly super and the album one of the best "super" group efforts imaginable. ~ Tim Sendra