Over the course of three full-length albums, Reading Rainbow has been three distinctly different bands. On 2009's Mystical Participation, founding members (and spouses) Rob Garcia and Sarah Everton ran bubblegum melodies through a grime-filled trench of hiss and reverb; it hardly seemed like a band at all at this point, but rather an extended flirtation conducted over a lo-fi recording deck. On 2010's Prism Eyes, Reading Rainbow suddenly embraced clarity and rock 'n roll assertiveness, pushing against their limitations as a two-piece to make the loudest, poppiest noise possible. On their new record, Yeah Right, Reading Rainbow has made its biggest change-up yet. For starters, they're now known as Bleeding Rainbow. (Apparently the name change was prompted by a disparaging remark from Carrie Brownstein, though that could be embellishment.) More importantly, Bleeding Rainbow has expanded to a quartet, with Everton surrendering the drums to Greg Frantz, and Al Creedon joining Garcia on guitar.
These changes, presumably, were intended to remake Bleeding Rainbow on Yeah Right like Dylan Baldi transformed Cloud Nothings into a hard-hitting post-punk outfit on last year's Attack on Memory, or how the Pains of Being Pure at Heart morphed into a widescreen '90s alt-rock group on 2011's Belong. Like those groups, Reading Rainbow was frequently described as "twee" or "cutesy"-- an image Everton has expressed reservations about in interviews. Based on Yeah Right, Garcia and Everton would rather Bleeding Rainbow be seen as a dark, dreamy shoegaze-infused pop band. You know, cool. Unfortunately, Garcia and Everton aren't very good at being cool, and were better off when they weren't trying to be.
The most disappointing aspect of Yeah Right is how doubling the band's size hasn't made Bleeding Rainbow sound any fuller or more powerful. Frantz's drumming isn't noticeably better than Everton's rudimentary time-keeping, and aside from the occasional would-be psychedelic interlude, Creedon's leads don't add much to the equation. What this line-up has accomplished is giving Bleeding Rainbow a more professional sound, though the dubious likes of the paint-by-numbers MBV homage "Shades of Eternal Night" and the corny boy-girl duet "Inside My Head" hardly make this seem like a plus. Prism Eyes' fantastic lead-off track "Wasting Time" is more anthemic than anything on Yeah Right, and its guileless enthusiasm is sadly missing amid this album's calculated trend-grabs. The handmade quality that made Bleeding Rainbow's first two records so likeable and indelible is absent on Yeah Right; in its place is the serviceable but somewhat generic late 80s/early 90s fuzz pop that's become a default setting for aspirant indie bands.
Strangely, about half of Yeah Right sounds like leftovers from Bleeding Rainbow's former incarnations. These also happen to be the record's best songs. The gutted-out "Fall Into Your Eyes" is simultaneously mysterious and innocent, running its hymn-like melody through a buzzsaw of mechanical scrapes and squawks. "Waking Dream" is at the opposite end of the sonic spectrum-- its sunny melody and 60s pop bounce conjures the magic of Prism Eyes with a deep, nostalgic pang. "Pink Ruff" is another keeper, zipping along on a snappy rhythm guitar riff that approaches the fresh-faced rock this band once specialized in. Yeah Right has its charms, but they're echoes of a band Bleeding Rainbow used to be under a slightly different name.
