Listen Up: Wednesday, June 21, 2006

PHOTOS: 1 A D V E R T I S E M E N T A D V E R T I S E M E N T Eden Automatic As For Now\r\n(Chandojika Music) By Tom Geddie Dallas-based Eden Automatic calls its music psychedelic mood rock. The groovy, alluring opening song on As For Now, the band’s latest full-length album, is more mood than rock, but “Utopia” is still a fine, mellow high and a nice way to kick everything off. As EA, Annette and husband Doug Conlon, Scott Miles, and Greg Terhune share a clear vision of a youthful world that’s sometimes a little bit operatic (read: dramatically over the top) and at other times poetic, a world where there are, to paraphrase the lyrics of one song, more pink guitars than wars and broken hearts — but no flamingos or Floyds. Annette wrote most of the words, and the rock-based music is consistently solid, a thrust of self-determination in an industry that normally rewards conformity. Intentionally or not, the band that’s most clearly evoked on As For Now is Jefferson Airplane, that watershed ’60s-era group that succinctly reflected that tumultuous, adventurous time. You could almost say that in the same way “White Rabbit” encapsulated both the Airplane and its era, “Utopia,” on a much smaller though no less legitimate scale, summarizes EA and today nicely and neatly. Email this Article...