Felice Brothers: Celebration, Florida

Felice Brothers

Celebration, Florida

(Loose Music)

There’s a moment on Celebration, Florida when you hear the sound of a radio dial being twiddled until a voice emerges from the static singing a folk ditty. Then another song breaks in: “Ponzi”, a chewy rocker about financial fraud featuring Madoff-inspired lyrics, Arcade Fire-style chants and a bold electropop coda. The switch in styles sums up The Felice Brothers’ expanded horizons on their eighth album as they push on from their upstate New York roots-rock background.

“Container Ship” floats by with an eerie ambient tempo, “Back in the Dancehalls” matches old-fashioned fiddle with a woozy electronic beat and “Cus’s Catskill Gym” uses knockout riffs to relate the story of Mike Tyson’s rise and fall. Singer Ian Felice overdoes the weary Dylan drawl at times and boisterous production means the songs sound like they were recorded in the Felice family shed. Yet this ramshackle quality, the sense the album might fall apart at any moment, is part of its charm too.