Oxfordshire's Goldrush never got their gold rush. Major-label debut Don't Bring Me Down came out to polite Coldplay comparisons in 2002, but that must not have been enough for EMI/Virgin. Subsequent releases, including 2003's Extended Play EP and their David Fridmann-assisted 2005 sophomore album Ozona, have trickled out on indie labels. Disappointingly, Goldrush's third proper full-length The Heart Is the Place sounds like the work of a band still rehearsing for Keane-level background-rock stardom.
Around the internet, Goldrush's RIYL pretty much comes down to the melodic shoegaze of Ride plus the ringing folk-rock of Neil Young circa After the Gold Rush. Um, OK. Now, Goldrush probably know Ride better than I do; I may have listened to "Vapour Trail" nearly every day for six months back in 2003, but these guys backed ex-Ride frontman Mark Gardener on his 2005 solo outing. However, the glinting acoustic guitars, thinly compressed lead guitar whorls, and unobtrusive electronics of The Heart Is the Place have more in common with Snow Patrol's sensitive arena-rock, minus Gary Lightbody's underrated songwriting acumen. Nor is the stoned-Young piano homage of The Heart Is the Place's "Yours and Mine" enough to earn such a slick-sounding record a prominent spot in that Canadian's ragged lineage.
Like similarly over-polished UK rockers Fields, Goldrush do have catchy moments. "Every One of Us" is a light, inclusive pop song that sets cleaned-up shoegaze cloudbursts against vaguely uplifting hooks and synthesized strings. "We are not the way that we were/ She will forget about you, so forget about her," vocalist/guitarist Robin Bennett sings with breathy emotion, capping one of the band's more memorable melodies. The next track, "Can't Give Up the Ghost", may be a weeper reminiscent of Jimmy Eat World's dippiest ballads, but it's a candidate for the Zach Braff sweepstakes. "If you're really so small/ In the scheme of it all/ Then you've gotta stand tall," Bennett insists. Goldrush get more compelling, if less immediate, on weirder songs like "Sun in Your Eyes", with its angelic harmonies and an eerie horn section out of Radiohead's "The National Anthem".
The Heart Is the Place is the latest in the recent trend of EZ-indie albums that sound like they're trying so hard not to stand out that they, indeed, fail to stand out. Even the occasional distorted guitar solo, as on "We Will Not Be Machines", is still restrained enough to keep from alienating potential record-buying demographics. On this song and elsewhere, Bennett's lyrics are often so simple and declarative as to be meaningless: "Words are sometimes so obscene," he sings. On the title track, Bennett adds, "Maybe the best is yet to come/ Just you, me, and everyone," a line that could've been sung by, well, just about anyone. Then again, anyone can strike it rich in a gold rush, too, with the right amount of luck. It's what happens after that counts.
