The Best Around deliver their exploratory debut EP, "Margaret"
Review by Austin Sher
Recently released by Austin, Texas’s own, The Best Around, is their debut EP titled Margaret. Read along with us as we deep dive into our thoughts on the record, as well as some background info on the band.
Comprising of three members, The Best Around are made up of Camron Rushin, Todd Pruner, and Jon Merz. Camron is a singer/songwriter who has dabbled in and out of the music scene since he was in college in Wichita Fall, TX. His previous Austin band, Safeword, played shows around Austin from 2008 to 2013 before burning out. Todd Pruner has played bass for English Teeth, Kodachrome, The Foundries, and Christopher Douthitt and the Glyphs. He played lead guitar for The Asteroid Shop. He is a multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, banjo, bass, and synths. Jon Merz is a multi-instrumentalist who has played trumpet, trombone, keyboards and guitar for Montopolis, My Jerusalem, Soul Track Mind, The Foundries, Monk Parker and Uke.
In addition the music being an extremely fun listen, it’s also a human interest story as much as it is a music review. One of the interesting things about the band is that they did this all remotely and had very little input from each member about how we were going to sound. They just sent each other .wav files and each person would add a layer. They did the same thing with the video for “Margaret”. They just sent out a text and said, let’s make a video of how exhausted and bored we all are from quarantining.
At a track length of 3 and a run time of 11 minutes, our first impressions after listening through were that we need more of this! As much as it is an experimental sounding indie record, it was quite reminiscent of early Animal Collective, with a hint of Parquet Courts. The vocals are delivered in an almost nonchalant manner, but are delivered with a sense of meaning, especially lyrically.
Instrumentally speaking, there was more than enough variation to keep any listener interested. We do have to say that the addition of phasers brought things to the next level, especially with a nice pair of headphones. While you’re trying to focus in on one instrument at a time, the added effects brought it together to sound like one cohesive experience. The only thing that I’d really want to add to the whole record is that we wish it were longer. We loved the sound, the experimentation, and feeling it gave us, but we really hope that The Best Around will expand on this type of sound in the future.
With that all being said though, this is a must listen! For lovers of all music non-mainstream, this is for you. To keep up with the music of The Best Around and to listen to Margaret, please check out the following links below.
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