ZEUS play the Horseshoe Friday (March 23) and Sonic Boom Saturday (March 24) as part of CMW. Rating: NNNN
The first time I heard Zeus, I dismissed them as a Beatles-obsessed retro act. That’s not inaccurate, but weeks later, when I couldn’t stop listening to their 2010 debut, Say Us, I had to admit that, though shamelessly derivative, they’d come up with a highly addictive collection of well-crafted pop songs. There have been big stylistic changes between their debut and Busting Visions, but the band still provokes the same contradictory reactions.
Say Us sounded like a love letter to 1969, but Busting Visions comes across as the same band sometime in the mid-70s. Already many are saying this is the Wings to the Beatles-obsessed Say Us, but it’s closer to what we imagine the Fab Four might have sounded like had they not broken up. At first, the complete lack of restraint and overflowing musical ideas make Busting Visions feel a bit like an unfocused mess, but once you get familiar with it, it seems absurd to complain that they’ve crammed a dozen golden hooks into every single song. Don’t let their retroisms scare you off before you learn to love it.
Top track: Hello Tender Love
