Somehow an album that features production by R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and musicians who have played with The Decemberists, Guided By Voices, and Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks flew under my radar when it was released in 2020. Just found it in the last week or so because the band, Eyelids, is playing a show up in Evanston at SPACE opening for Split Single. A real shame, because The Accidental Falls is right up my alley.

The album is a collaboration with poet Larry Beckett, who wrote songs with Tim Buckley until Buckley’s death in 1975. Included on The Accidental Falls is the song “Found At The Scene Of A Rendezvous That Failed,” originally written by Beckett and Buckley. On this album it features Beckett on piano and Buck on bass. Eyelids do a great job putting the music to Beckett’s words, and you’d never know that they hadn’t been written specifically for them.

It’s easy to make some comparisons to R.E.M. with Buck at the helm, but most bands whose members are old enough to have been around when R.E.M. was getting going probably have at least a little of that sound engrained in their brains. Here, you can hear it mostly in the tone of the guitars. I think that those are less Buck’s influence and just the organic nature of hearing something you like and building from it.

There’s also a geographical sound stemming out of the northwest that reminds me of Modest Mouse and some of Death Cab’s music. It’s indie rock, it’s power pop, and it’s a great listen if you’re looking for something that you probably haven’t heard yet.

As I noted at the top, Eyelids are coming to the Chicago area to open for Split Single at SPACE on June 18th. You can get tickets here. If you really dig the video above, you can get the album from the band’s Bandcamp page here.