Unicycle Loves You Looks Forward With Mirror, Mirror

By Jon Graef in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 11, 2010 2:00PM

Unicycle Loves You celebrates the release of their second album, Mirror, Mirror at Schubas on Saturday. The Chicago-based trio put out their self-titled debut record on Highwheel Records in 2008, and it was filled with upbeat, melodic pop songs that split the difference between tried-and-true Midwest power-pop and more rhythmically fractious fare like the Fiery Furnaces. On Mirror, Mirror, the band's exuberant vocal harmonies are still there, especially with bassist Nicole Vitale taking the lead on several tracks. After all, somethings shouldn't be changed. If it ain't broke, why fix it?

On the other hand, groups must make progress, and Unicycle Loves You does that in spades. Producer/head songsmith Jim Carroll bathes each track in a hazy, not-quite-lo-fi-but-not-exactly-polished-either, glaze of fuzz. The effect is that the songs Mirror sounds otherworldly, even on straightforward, verse-chorus-verse pop songs like the title track or synth-heavy "Quagga." But when the band stretches out, especially Bowie-does-reggae track “There’s A Giant Walking Into My Heart,” or on the numerous psychedelic segue songs like the nightmarish, claustrophobic, "A Second Look", em>Mirror is peppered with an edge that was nowhere to be found on the last record. With Mirror, Unicycle Loves You look at themselves and realize they’re evolving. And, for listeners, that’s a very, very good thing.

Unicycle Loves You, Village, and Nurse Novels play TONIGHT, Sept. 11 at Schubas, 3159 N Southport, 10 p.m., $10, 21+