The Street Lights Have Been Turned Down

Tampa, FL, indie rock quartet Zillionaire, three of whose members were formerly part of the Washdown (although that group's drummer, Heath Dupras, is now a singer/guitarist), displays two different modes on its debut album The Street Lights Have Been Turned Down, and they can be summarized easily as "slow" and "fast." The former is heard first on the opening track "I Won't Let You Down (This Time)," with its deliberate tempo and the calm baritone singing voice intoning the ominous lyrics, "Get your shotgun/Don't want to miss this chance/Make sure it's loaded." Just as slow is the fifth track, "Jesus Told Me So," and the somnolent vocalist is back trying to remember someone he met on New Year's Eve. On "Three Ghosts," he's asking, "Where did you go?/I know you're not there." And on "New Cymbal," the nominal closing track, he still hasn't cheered up, singing, "Why don't you go?/I'm falling to pieces/I don't want you to see what happens to me." But interspersed between these gloomy numbers are up-tempo pop/rock songs like "Loose Leaf" and "The Gardener," sung either by the baritone or a tenor. (In addition to Dupras, guitarist Michael Waksman and drummer Keith Ulrey are credited with vocals.) They certainly lighten things up, but they also make Zillionaire a somewhat schizophrenic-sounding band. Of course, one could say the same thing about the Velvet Underground, an obvious influence. That influence is also on display on the hidden track, a 20-minute-plus instrumental in which repetitive elements contrast with slowly changing electronic sounds for a trance-like effect. ~ William Ruhlmann|