Marble Berry Seeds - Meteoronomy

Marble Berry Seeds

​Meteoronomy 
self-released; 2015

3.3 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

Marble Berry Seeds is a project from Cameron Wheatley and other musicians who are interested in working with him. His latest release Meteoronomy is a twelve song lo-fi effort that revolves around mostly his vocals and acoustic guitar.

The recording quality is about that of a demo. A bump up would have helped with the visceral impact of the songs. That being said you still get an idea of what Wheatley is capable of.

I think it's safe to safe to say Wheatley's vocals are unique to say the least and will have people divided. There is no denying he has a very high pitched, nasally voice that sounds like he just took a hit off some helium. It’s hard to deny that his inflection and tone have some of the stereotypes that you may equate with what a nerd sounds like. That may sound like an insult but it’s not. I enjoyed his singing his style and thought were a number of songs it worked very well with.

When it comes to his lyrics they are often witty and sometime bursting with cultural references. Take for instance the opener “Cosmology”. He sings “Jesus doesn't have Norman Greenbaum on his IPod, his Google searches are in line with your average man. If the Son of God died to cleanse you of our sins I guess that we should sin the best we can”.

“Grave New World” is a solid song but had too much phase while “Townie Winter Song” contains a couple of inspired lyrics. “Smashing the Windows” was a highlight amongst the batch. Wheatley has some melancholy in his voice and it sounds great. It reminded me of Bright Eyes in a number of ways. The wind instrument was a nice addition to this song. He sings “Everyday I wake up tired and obsessive and a liar If I don't go to work than there's nothing for me to do. If I can find the balls to smash these artless walls Perhaps the sun will help me grow into something new and brave and free”.

As the album progress there were a couple more songs that worked such as “Knight Light” and “Tchotchkes”

There is some potential here but Wheatley hasn’t reached it yet. A couple years back Destroyer released an album entitled Your Blues. Between the lyrics and delivery I could see Wheatley riding a similar vibe if he continues to improve. At some point the recording quality is going to have to improve but everyone has to start somewhere.

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