Because I’ve been a music fan for so long, I tend to forget how I come across most bands and artists. A lot of them are through word of mouth, or I find them on a website or blog, but there are those bands I won’t forget how I found, even after almost two decades of being a music fan. One of those bands is Eisley; I got into them around the summer of 2007, and I was getting into a lot of music at the time, but it was a case of watching a late night TV show and sticking around to watch a musical guest. I was watching Late Night With Conan O’Brien, and the band performed the song “Invasion,” which was from their upcoming sophomore album, entitled Combinations. I loved what I heard, because it was this weird, off-putting, and strange-sounding indie-pop song that was still very catchy and pleasant. I was surprised that the rest of the album wasn’t like that, but more so a mixture of indie-rock, alt-rock, alt-country, and folk-rock. Their debut album, 2005’s Room Noises, was also a bit of an interesting album, having an indie-pop / indie-rock sound. I picked that up right afterwards, which is something I did back then a lot; if there was a band or artist I found that I really liked, I would listen to their new album, and then I’d pick up anything else they had the following week if I really liked what I heard. Back then, I was able to find a lot of stuff in stores, as CDs were pretty common, but I can just stream something nowadays. Being that it was May the Fourth recently, and this band is named after a Star Wars reference (the city of Mos Eisley on the planet Tatooine), now’s the best time to do it. Eisley is one of my favorite bands, and they’re also an extremely underrated one, because I don’t hear anybody talk about this band.
Maybe it’s partially because their last album came out in 2017, and from what I remember, it wasn’t anything too great. I don’t remember the band putting anything outright awful, but even back then, I wasn’t as enthralled with their last couple of albums as I was with their first few. Their first two albums are the ones that I would easily recommend (their third album is pretty good, too, in all fairness), as their last couple of albums would move more into dream-pop and more straightforward indie-pop / rock. Their first two albums, however, were more of a baroque-pop and indie-pop sound that were also incredibly fun and whimsical. They had a Beatles-esque quality to them, mainly for its weird, strange, and surreal lyricism that doesn’t make sense. Their debut, 2005’s Room Noises, really has that, and the follow-up, 2007’s Combinations, kind of does, too, but it’s a bit more played down. 2011’s The Valley would be a more straightforward indie-rock album, and I remember it was pretty good, but it was a little less interesting or unique than their last couple of albums. Even between Room Noises and Combinations, there was a bit of a shift in sound, but it wasn’t a bad one. They still had that whimsical indie-pop sound, but they added more elements to it. There are songs with folk, alt-country, and a bit of new wave and synth-pop, so there was some variety there. Their debut has some variety, too, but it mainly floats around between an indie-pop and rock album. What makes it work extremely well, however, are its hooks, and this band is rife with catchy melodies and hooks.
That’s kind of because of their vocalists, and this band had multiple vocalists at one point, especially on their first couple of albums. The band was comprised of the DuPree siblings, including Sherri, Chauntelle, and Stacy, and they all contributed vocals, as well as played instruments, but part of the charm of their first couple of albums is that the vocal harmonies were utterly gorgeous. All three sisters could sing very well, even though Sherri was the lead vocalist, which she still is today. Room Noises isn’t particularly a perfect record, as the lyrics are a bit too nonsensical sometimes, and they do sound like word salad a lot of the time, but the melodies are really nice, so I can’t complain too much. Combinations is a better record overall, both because the songwriting is more interesting and diverse, but the lyrics are better written, more cohesive, and coherent, versus just being borderline gibberish (other than that the lyrics provide some interesting imagery). I tend to look at both albums as being complementary to each other, though, because you can hear the shift in sound and the improvement from Room Noises to Combinations. The latter album is also a lot shorter, only being 34 minutes, whereas Room Noises is 41, but it does feel a little longer, only because the album gets slightly boring in the latter half. It’s not that it’s bad, or the songs aren’t any good, but a lot of the record sounds the same. A lot of the songs feature the same formula, including a very nice chorus, whimsical lyrics and instrumentation, as well as wonderful vocal harmonies, and an indie-rock / pop backbone to drive it all home, but it all sounds the same. It sounds great, and it holds up very well after twenty years, but Combinations is a better record. If you want to listen to this band, which I would encourage it, that’s the album to start off with, but Room Noises is a pretty cool album, too, and it has some solid stuff in it.
