New Music: Bodies of Water: "These Are the Eyes" [MP3/Stream]
Nobody's ever going to accuse L.A. quartet Bodies of Water of pulling a Stryper. Instead of carefully ambiguous ballads that could be about god or could be about some girl, "These Are the Eyes", like every other song on their ambitious debut, Ears Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink, is definitely and proudly about god. Written with dense Old Testament-style imagery ("These are the eyes of my eyes") and delivered with a choir's rapt enthusiasm, the song nicks from some of the usual sources: Sufjan's complex arrangements, Arcade Fire's size, and, with multiple vocalists singing together, the Polyphonic Spree. But Bodies of Water perform "These Are the Eyes" with such energy and conviction-- listen for that jubilant call and response toward the end-- that it sounds like a uniquely joyful noise.
[From Ears Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink; out now on Thousand Tongues]