Trolleyvox Your Secret Safe/Luzerne CD

Two-CD sets by indie pop bands weren't common fare in 2007, but that's what Trollyvox offer on Your Secret Safe/Luzerne. While neither of the two discs are ballyhooed more than the other in the packaging, it's likely that the one titled Your Secret Safe is the one into which they poured their primary energy, as the disc titled Luzerne is wholly acoustic and partially instrumental. Your Secret Safe, in contrast, boasts full-band arrangements, offering guitar pop featuring Beth Filla's coolly haunting lead vocals. While not the most remarkable or brilliant of sounds, the band's combination of moody and meditative words and melody with fairly aggressive, guitar-driven backing is reasonably engaging. A few of the tracks, like "I Call on You" and "Reading," are a bit like hearing the Who with a more contemporary indie pop bent and a female vocalist, and in fact, the Who's "Our Love Was" is the only cover of the set. Other songs admit other influences into their approach, like ringing 12-string power pop on "Jean Jacket," though even that song has instrumental breaks with highly Pete Townshend-esque power chords. The other disc on this release, Luzerne, is not Your Secret Safe unplugged. It has entirely different songs, though the only instrumentation is provided by Trollyvox songwriter Andrew Chalfen (mostly on acoustic guitar) and Eve Miller (on occasional cello), and five of the twelve tracks are instrumental. In keeping with the format, these are gentler and folkier tunes, more Nick Drake than Pete Townshend, though they're less memorable than those on the Luzerne CD. There's a penetrating opening lyric of "Intermission," though, with more anguish than is apparent from the musical tone of the cut: "She found her broken heart in mint condition in the Japanese rent-a-car." ~ Richie Unterberger

Audio Mixers: Brian McTear; Amy Morrissey; Andrew Chalfen; Chris Unrath; Adam Lasus.

Recording information: Eardrum Land, Philadelphia, PA (2007); Fireproof, Brooklyn, NY (2007); Fireproof, LA (2007); Miner Street, Philadelphia, PA (2007).

Photographers: Andrew Chalfen; Beth Filla; Jim Moran.

Trolleyvox: Owen Biddle (bass instrument, unknown instrument); Adam Stranburg (drums, percussion); Beth Filla, Ken Buono, Eve Miller, Andrew Chalfen.

Personnel: Beth Filla (vocals, background vocals); Andrew Chalfen (guitar, piano, percussion, sound effects, background vocals); Steve Maglio (guitar); Eve Miller (cello); Ken Buono (drums); Brian McTear (tambourine); Owen Biddle (sound effects); Amy Morrissey (background vocals).

Additional personnel: Scott Rodgers (bass instrument); Steve Maglio, Amy Morrissey, Brian McTear.

Harp (magazine) (p.108) - "[With] Beth Filla's honey-coated voice flowing seductively over gentle melodies...[and] Andrew Chalfen coaxing luminous slides and pristine pickings from his acoustic guitar..."