The Minders
Issue #29
It's A Bright Guilty World (Future Farmer)
By Anne Johnson
Published: September 1st, 2006 | 12:00am
It’s a Bright Guilty World, the Minders’ fourth full-length, follows the course that was charted on 2004’s The Future’s Always Perfect with terrific results.
The title of the album is taken from Orson Wells’ 1947 thriller Lady from Shanghai and is the opening line of “Don’t You Stop,” an ode to bandleader Martin Leaper’s disenchantment with the music business, written after the band was dropped from spinART Records three years ago. His disgust is transformed sublimely into a gorgeous pop song, one of many among these 14 tracks. Rather than wallow in bitterness throughout, the Minders chose to meditate on other subject matter, such as the struggle of love and life. The result plays out thematically, like XTC’s Skylarking who are echoed in the song “Red Admiral’s (Gonna Pass Me).”
On opener “There Goes My Formula!,” Leaper and his fellow Minders — Apples in Stereo leader and Elephant 6 founder Robert Schneider, Rebecca Cole, and Joel Burrows — wonder, “What kind of man am I?” The question is not so much answered as honestly explored. Closer “Guns of August” raises more questions: Will we ever find the strength to make a change in this world? Hopefully we all will and hopefully the Minders will continue to ponder such themes on future albums that are as good as this.
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