Lincoln Conspiracy
Tuesday, Mar 07, 2006   6pm

Not every group would confidently cite Cliff Richard as an influence. Equally irresponsible is its tendency to recall the English pub rock of Joe Jackson and stomp in the muddy footsteps of Ben Folds. And, frankly, it’s comparable to career suicide to name your first two EPs after members of the Beatles (John and Paul).

Ethan Kreitzer’s keyboards are the sugar that makes the bile in the lyrics like “I’ll take you out for the weekend/Then I’ll be leaving/Cos it’s the least that I can do� go down a little easier. Steve Ordonez’s R&B-derived basslines give muscle-bound support to the arrangements from the Boston-based trio.

The surface of the Paul and John EPs is all sunny, up-tempo pop; for god’s sakes they even worked a Farfisa organ into the mix. But repeated listening to both records unearths the heartbreak buried beneath the “ooh la las� and handclaps. Eventually, the songs remind you of new friends that you feel like you’ve known your whole life.