Brian Cassidy is one lucky guy. Wouldn't we all love to spend our weeknights and weekends in a private school band room, bringing to life all of the songs that are usually banished to the backs of napkins and folded-up notebooks,
throwing in everything but the kitchen sink, including all of the instruments we don't know how to play, and in the end, have it sound as good as Half-Winter, Half-Spring in the Unreal City does. The record's success is as much a product of Cassidy's solid song writing and ear for melody as it is for his child-like tinkering, an element which gives the record's varying sound a cohesive feel and
serves to compliment its lyrical themes, lending a sonic accompaniment to the innocence inherent in their melancholy. "Putting Like a Genius" has Cassidy
endearingly poking at piano keys with a child-like lack of precision; the impromptu sneeze that opens "Trying to Keep the Cicadas Away" serves as an audible wink in the face of the song's contemplative hush; the drunken caterwaul of "Thanks Elsie" is undercut with sparse percussion, fumbled harmonica, and more disjointedly inspired piano playing. "We're gonna get it this time..."Cassidy mutters into the microphone before taking on "Elsie." Did he ever. -Thomas Whalen