Eisley: Combinations

Eisley: Combinations

The kids are better than alright

Sister vocalists Sherri and Stacy DuPree could’ve been Aly & AJ with the right highlights and pink jogging suits. But instead, on their 2005 debut, Room Noises, the young vocalists offered shiver-inducing harmonies in the midst of songs that could’ve been written by Lewis Carroll. Finally, a teen band that isn’t precious, just precociously talented. Eisley—which also includes guitarist Chauntelle DuPree, drummer Weston DuPree and bassist Garron DuPree—is a family band from the Bible Belt stronghold of Tyler, Texas, and it’s always seemed like a band for kids who prefer reading to watching TV. While Room Noises offered a childhood fantasia, Combinations takes on topics you’d expect from kids whose ages range from 15 to 23: heartache, rebellion, love. It is, almost literally, a sophomore effort. The DuPrees have become better musicians since their debut, and they want to show it off, on songs like guitar-driven opener “Many Funerals.” It’s hard not to miss the wide-eyed mystery of the ?rst album, and there’s nothing here to rival the otherworldly “Marvelous Things,” but you can’t stay in Wonderland forever. Instead, we get lovely, dreamy love songs like the title track, which Sherri wrote about her husband, New Found Glory’s Chad Gilbert. And if the music-placement folks are doing their jobs properly, “Taking Control” (a stiff-arm ditty about independence) will be featured soon on the latest teen melodrama. Because, hey, even kids who love to read enjoy a little CW.

 
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