Pitchfork

Bryan Scary's debut album rocks the candy shop, pillaging it for as many audio confections as possible. "The Ceiling on the Wall" is among the sweetest, opening with a choir of multi-tracked Bryans repeating the word "marbles" and jumping right to the chorus-- one of them, that is. There are enough catchy sections here for about four songs, and it's easy to see how he fell in with Apollo Sunshine's Jeremy Black, who contributes drums on this track-- the only instrument Scary doesn't play. The other chorus comes from a different world, romantic but fantastical, in a Michel Gondry/Terry Gilliam way. The lyrics are about as flung-together as the music, joining words like puzzle pieces that don't quite fit: "If I could take you to the mountains of the moon/ Hiding underneath the noonday gloom/ You wouldn't have to see me fall here daily/ Don't let the ceiling on the wall derail me." It's adventurous, fully fleshed, and catchy as hell-- as indie pop should be.