Guster needs a label that will do a better job of promoting them. They've been on six different labels in 15 years and none of those labels can figure out how to market them. Guster reminds me a bit of XTC, another immensely talented band who wrote gorgeous baroque pop music with intricate vocal arrangements in the manner of the Beatles or Brian Wilson. XTC really never found an audience (in the United States) for their music. Both bands have a similar dilemma: Too smart for mainstream pop but not edgy enough for indie pop.
What You Wish For from the album Lost and Gone Forever is simply one of the most perfect pop songs I've ever heard. Everything works, Steve Lillywhite's lush production, the gorgeous choir boy harmonies, the chiming guitars and the clever double edged message of the lyrics. It's a song that equals some of the Beatles finest music. When I first heard What You Wish For playing over the opening credits sequence of the movie, My Life As A House I wish so enchanted with the song, I stuck around to the end of the closing credits to find out the title of the song and the band, so I could purchase it.
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There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt
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