Review: Shelf Life – Everyone Make Happy

Shelf Life
Everyone Make Happy

Lefse Records
Street: 09.18
Shelf Life = Pinback + Jenny Lewis

I bet if we asked Scotty Leitch of Shelf Life if he likes Pinback, he’d shyly nod his head and kind of smirk. I say this not because this album sounds influenced by Pinback, but because every other song on this album literally sounds like a Pinback demo, right down to the spoken words over instrumentals thing that they did on their early albums. Not that this is a bad thing, at all. I love Pinback a lot, and I wonder if I’d never listened to them if this’d be a different review. There are some who might say that all the best art is unique and not held too closely to its influences, and I’m not sure I’d agree. The small-bedroom-pop songs on Everyone Make Happy are as good as any other, and if you’re into that kind of thing, I bet you’d like it. –Alex Gilvarry