Throw Me The Statue - 'Moonbeams' (Secretly Canadian) Released 18/02/08

A new artist has emerged with songs that sound so complex on the outside but ring simple behind the scenes with basic chord sequences and repetitive loops. More to the point, they have a knack for writing effortless sounding pop songs that show variety and optimism. Scott Reitherman (aka. Throw Me The Statue) is being talked about stateside via. hometown Seattle but over here, he’s just a ghost in disguise, ready to scare the living daylights out of us all. A debut album that’s daring enough to provide a clear picture of a naked woman diving seawards on its cover suggests artistic talent and guts to provide something we may not be familiar with.

‘Moonbeams’ doesn’t let us down. It’s your typical alternative-indie-fan’s wet dream in the form of music, daring to be different while putting a smile on your face at the same time. It’s another one of those albums that doesn’t belong in the miserable opening months of the year, with its bright and careless material that should be the soundtrack for the festival circuit. Nevertheless, we’ll make do with this being our anti-depressant while we turn the heating down that little bit lower. The outstanding thing about ‘Moonbeams’ is that you won’t get bored whilst taking a listen because it progressively gets better and better. That’s quite a statement when placed next to an album consisting of 15 tracks all spanning near the four minute mark.

It’s not like the record makes a stalled start either. ‘Lolita’ is an instant memory lodged into your head after just one listen. It’s here that we start to notice the basic chord sequences disguised by such moving, supporting instruments. Lyrics “Shaking off a dusty cape, place it up again, ‘cause she used to love it. So I bury my shame, she was 19 and we all rearrange” aren’t particularly jawdropping in originality but you find yourself falling in a trance with them – it’s very much sing-a-long-if-you-feel-like-it stuff. From then on there are breaks in brilliance but when you find the key moments, you know it. ‘About To Walk’ at first comes across as a simple folky song with a hint of potential but when the chorus arrives, your perspective is bound to move elsewhere. “After all as the evening goes, there were only there to break my toes” confirms Reitherman who seems slightly out-of-tune every now and then but makes up for it with the feel-good feeling that you’ll have to let arise eventually.

Consistently, after this highlight on the album, things improve experimentally, TMTS attempt new tricks and move us once more with stunning chorus’ in ‘Yucatan Gold’ and ‘Take It Or Leave It’. A running theme crops up eventually, which will surprise many. It happens to be that the better songs on ‘Moonbeams’ are the ones that give breathing space to these simplistic chord sequences, giving us more of an inside look into the recording process and what the songs sounded like from scratch. They’re more personal and not too complex - it’s a winning formulae. It’s hard not to see Throw Me The Statue turning into something much more exceptional and credible. It would pain to see this grandeur of a debut album slipping under the radar to find its way in underrated-land.

That seems unlikely though because when you get an album as instantaneous and fruitful as ‘Moonbeams’, it’s impossible that people won’t catch on.