For
Sybris, only time will tell if the Chicago band is embraced or shunned for sounding like indie rock darlings
Rilo Kiley. Angela Mullenhour is, after all, a deadringer for
Jenny Lewis, although there's hints of
Karen O and
Björk too. What keeps the band from being a clone is their sonic guitar and drums, which know when to be big and when to be quiet. Without a good listen before reading a bio that stretches to describe
Sybris as "a fusion of art rock, 80s heavy metal and folk" it'd be tough to figure out just where the band is on the musical map. If anything,
Sybris is somewhere between post-rock and noise-pop, which makes sense when the mixer for the record also worked with
Explosions in the Sky. When adding Mullenhour's croon and ambiguous lyrics, the song arrangements put
Sybris near the top of the current crop of indie rock. And when she sings lines such as "your boyfriend's name is exotic," it's hard to resist her charm. ~ Kenyon Hopkin