CD Review: Eisley, "Room Noises" (Reprise)

There's a scene in the Sophia Coppola film "Virgin Suicides" where a doctor asks a 13-year-old girl why she would want to attempt suicide.

"Obviously, doctor, you've never been a 13-year-old girl," she replies.

A similar situation may be in effect with "Room Noises," the debut full-length from Eisley. It's a dreamy, grandiose piece of heavily produced popcraft that might ring soundly with younger--especially female--listeners, while leaving the rest of us feeling completely out of the loop.

Recalling the more ponderous work of Sarah McLachlan, "Room Noises" is both achingly personal and colorfully whimsical as sisters Chauntelle and Sherri DuPree sing sweetly about coming of age and embracing wonders both big and small. Think Tori Amos crossed with "Dawson's Creek" and you begin to get the picture.

This Texas-based quintet, which features four siblings and a family friend, applies equal amounts of pixie dust and Poetry 101 in songs such as "Brightly Wound," "Memories" and "One Day I Slowly Floated Away." In particular, the lyrics to "Marvelous Things" sound right out of Smurfette's journal: "I awoke the dawn/Saw horses growing out on the lawn/I glimpsed a bat with butterfly wings/Oh what marvelous things." Hardly.