Bishop Allen has mastered the art of quirky, unassuming pop with a fragile heart. The band's heartfelt, refreshing music is imbued with smart choruses and jangly guitars, and "Central Booking" exemplifies its charming, relatable songwriting.
A humorous confession of an embarrassing Sunday-evening mistake, "Central Booking" describes a cowardly encounter with a police officer as the narrator finds himself in handcuffs, blubbering. Trapped among teenage rebels and street-corner misfits, he's stuck repeating, "I don't belong." But he faces a night in jail, with all the attendant indignities of incarceration: "I'm not a threat / No, not like that," he pleads when his shoes and shoelaces are confiscated.
Bishop Allen is in the process of self-releasing one four-song EP for every month in 2006, and each dispenses an abundance of hooky, piano-driven sing-along fodder. "Central Booking," from February, finds the band acknowledging its youthful neuroses with a knowing look and a sly smile.
Listen to yesterday's 'Song of the Day.'
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