Unruffled: Ultra-relaxed folk rock for balmy summer evenings.
Acoustic guitars strum relaxedly, the drums stumble a bit awkwardly, a guitar nibbles above them – the sound of Bonny Doon is easy to describe and almost unchanged on their third album. LET THERE BE MUSIC is just a bit more lavishly arranged, lively piano and background choirs take the songs to another level, making the trio a great community.
It also fits that Bill Lennox and Bobby Colombo, who also write all the songs together, take turns singing again and again. Lennox’s darker voice provides laconic melancholy, to which Colombo’s bell-like organ forms a pleasant contrast.
The regulated mid-tempo is never left, the ten songs flow like this – but often could have been a minute shorter. The sprawling instrumental outros rarely add anything substantial. It’s definitely nice live, the songs fray a bit unmotivatedly over the length of the album, never ending. But since this is music to dream away anyway, you just have to get involved with it – and then you get a wonderful record for summer evenings on the balcony.
Author: Elias Pietsch