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Dear Reader - Replace Why with Funny album review
23 Apr 2009
Packaged with do it yourself cut out quirky characters and an album cover that folds out into the background for said characters. The Replace Why with Funny album design is as sweet and original as the music it contains. Dear Reader is Cherilyn Macniel, Darryl Torr and more recently Michael Wright on drums. Combine these three talented individuals and then add band Menomena's Brent Knopf as producer and you have the result of a cracking album.
Cherilyn has a beautiful voice and all the lyrics are written by her with exception of the first track Way of the World which was also written by Darryl. Consequently the songs are incredibly sincere and personal primarily dealing with issues of love both lost and found.
The songs are all quite bitter sweet and pretty, though sometimes just a little too pretty for my liking and after a few listens of the album they do somewhat blend into one another and sound a bit similar in emo-ness. That said there are a few tracks that stand out above the rest. Dearheart is quite touching and incredibly difficult to get out of one's head. Bend as well as Out Out Out both have a great a catchy rhythm to them and Out Out Out is particularly good for the fact that is a bit more up tempo then most of the other tracks.
The Same which features the WITS choir is a song about being a whitie in a post apartheid South Africa and how ultimately we are all the same but instead of being a bit cringe worthy as it quite easily could have been is humorous with lines like “No I don't listen to Kwaito, I wasn't born in Soweto, I don't understand you, But I want to”. The Great White Bear is a very cute and sad ditty about hiding in a polar bear. Why a polar bear? Well as Cherilyn explained at the Dear Reader album launch in Cape Town a white polar bear is very well camouflaged in its icey surroundings so hiding inside one would be the best hiding place possible and how can you argue with such undeniable logic even if inside “it's a little sticky and smells a little fishy.”
With their haunting, sincere and easy listening music style I believe the Replace Why with Funny album by Dear Reader should gain the band much more success and fans both locally and internationally.
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