REVIEW: Totally Mild - Down Time

Elizabeth Mitchell has a pretty much perfect pop voice.  So with good material and the right supporting players, one would expect good things.  Fortunately, for Down Time, the just released album for her band Totally Mild, she has written very good material and assembled an excellent complement of bandmates in Zach Schneider (of Full Ugly, which we covered last year, and The Great Outdoors, which was on these pages earlier in the week) on guitar, Lehmann Smith (of Kes Band) on bass and Ashley Bundang (whose band Zone Out included Mitchell) on drums.  The songs consist of ten well formed nuggets of autumnal pop melancholy that still manage to be airy and warm.  The rhythm section is sparse, but authoritative and Schneider's guitar perfectly accents Mitchell's vocals.  So, we expected good things, and Totally Mild delivered very, very good things.

Sophisticated and precise without becoming slick or cold, and produced to give the vocals and instruments sufficient space for maximum impact, these are songs that you can live with and play over and over.  And while there is a bit of Beach House in the vibe, it is the organic nature of the sound and the restraint in the production which sets Down Time apart from, and above, most comparisons.  You'll hear about relationships, stagnancy, and the fear of both.


Totally Mild - Christa from BSR on Vimeo.





Down Time is out now via Bedroom Such Records, which is offering it as a CD or vinyl plus digital download.  If you want to check out the album Mitchell released while Totally Mild was still a solo project, it it as the Bandcamp link below.

Facebook
Bedroom Suck order page for album
Bandcamp for previous album