As Tall as Lions

On You Can’t Take It With You, Long Island-based foursome As Tall as Lions’ third full-length for semi-indie label Triple Crown, the band pulls off a pretty impressive combination. ATAL distills the essence of such current mid-fi indie-rock darlings as Bon Iver, Portugal The Man and Broken Social Scene, and then applies a high-fidelity Brit-pop sonic filter, with the result being a somewhat perplexing but mostly enjoyable record. At times, the band seems almost consumed by its own eclecticism, not to mention ambition—the record took almost three years, and multiple producers, to complete. But frontman Dan Nigro’s buttery, Jeff Buckley-esque vocals would be hard to resist under any circumstance, and when ATAL dials back the weirdness a tad to reveal the soft, accessible, creamy center, you see why the band may indeed be the future of rock. At present, however, it brings to mind the words of the great Marty McFly: “I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it.”