Oh Blessed Thought

Taking respite from the Big Emotional Rock movement, which sees dozens of area bands emulating Coldplay and U2's ringing-guitar climaxes, Oh Blessed Thought uses its dual guitars subtly. Nate Evans and Josh Armfield dispense their shimmering riffs in shards, the fractal bits providing auxiliary atmos­pheric support the way keyboards do in guitarcentric groups. Though this approach works well during slower songs, some of which use an accordion prominently to enhance their mournful ambience, it leads to some anorexic rock-out attempts, despite Matt White's arena-sized drumming. (After a few distractingly arrhythmic tambourine taps during the first tune, Oh Blessed Thought's percussion proves categorically solid.) Mark Van Sickle sings with sensitivity and sincerity, but he, too, suffers when the volume rises: His outdoor-voice delivery, though passionate, communicates twerpy urgency, like a bullied nerd's riposte. Light a Lamp ends with the words The journey has just begun, which puts the aforementioned hiccups on this largely successful debut in perspective.