... Three In The Attic - Your Windy Day Games ...

self-released

Hailed by one local music vendor as “the best local release in recent memory,” Your Windy Day Games …, the debut EP by ellipsis-happy pop punkers Three In The Attic, might meet that lofty standard if your memory is really short and you’re not annoyed by the foibles that dominate here.

Opener “Theme to Captain America” sets the standard for this five-songer: a guitar-driven rocker that appears promising (though recycled) at first, only to be gutted by a lackluster chorus, self-pitying lyrics and the mostly tuneless, strained vox of frontman Nick Iverson. Moreover, “Captain America” dawdles on and on – a little brevity would have sustained any edge that the tune might have contained, but the plot is lost about two and a half minutes in.

While things continue in this vein for the remainder of the disc – “A Face On A Carton” suffers from the same malady of “Captain America” in that it’s a ceaseless rambler – all isn’t lost on Windy Day Games: “Good Lip Gloss” is an excellent pop-rocker that rings memorable in spite of its somewhat incongruous lyrics, while drummer Bennett Williams does a commendable job holding these songs together – he’s quickly ascending the ladder as one of Bloomington’s best skinsmen. And when Iverson relaxes, as on closer “The Epic”, his vocals are a lot more tuneful (and, by default, tolerable). But on the whole, Windy Day Games rarely treads past ordinary.