Rodeo Queen offers sturdy, fairly beautiful melodies. A western-folk-pop duo from Chicago, Utah Carol have apparently not gotten the attention of fellow folk-countryman Sufjan. But then again, they don't really have a gimmick. The two members, Grant Birkenbeuel and JinJa Davis, have been around the Chicago music scene since the 90s, not making anyone's hot-lists, until now.
The consistent pop conjures images of car-camping outside of Sacramento. Twinkle, inoffensive pop tells stories about true love in the American west 1860-2007.
Musically, Utah carol is typical of indie-pop that doesn't break through. The guitars sound soft, the drums sound real. My only real problem is with the vocals. Both musicians sing in most of the vocal section, which I applaud. Unfortunately, their words are a bit hackneyed, with lyrics about souls in love and abstract shining and falling amidst valleys and mountains. Add to this the fact that the music of the vocals lacks an edge and problems begin. Basically, all verbal efforts of Utah Carol fall short of profundity, becoming sickly smooth when the words fit, and deadly boring when the voices are musically on-point. At the end of the last track, Birkenbeuel somewhat unoriginally claims, "you're a beautiful girl," over and over. For me, personally, this brand of folk-pop is too sleepy, if still charming.
I wish Utah Carol reminded me more of Band of Horses, but the edginess of the lyrics don’t compare. The vocals sound too much like Fountains of Wayne, the band that wrote the epic 90s power-pop song "Stacy's Mom."