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After 3 indies, this is the first "major" label release

Book.........er | Canada | 11/16/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Box Set is one of the most serendipitous discoveries of music I've ever made. I accidentally came across their self-released eponymous "Box Set" CD at a listening post in a music store in Westport Connecticut, and played it over and over right then and there. The absolute cacthiness of the first cut, Back in Amsterdam" was enough to prompt the purchase, but the tunes that followed had tremendous punch as well. As one might expect from an initial lndie release, the production is good but not great, but this doesn't diminish one's enjoyment. It is quite a contrast to the crisp, and perhaps over-produced sound of "thread", however.I tried to describe their music to anyone who remembers the 70s as sounding like the band America, fast-forwarded to the 90s.A second full CD entitled Twenty Seven was released a year and a half later (which we found by accident in a Towers store in San Francisco; we didn't know anything about the band at that time; fortunately there was a web site reference on Twenty Seven), which continued the excellent writing, singing and musicianship from the first album, and added several new instruments to the mix (primarily keyboards).A 6-song EP followed, against consistent stylistically, entitled Mean Time.Finally, and with great fanfare, the band signed on with Capricorn Records and released "Thread". Most of the songs on Thread appeared on the earlier recordings, and the most noticeable things to a veteran Box Set listener are the tempo changes in several of the songs, and the higher attention to production details on many tunes.
Some of it sounds over-produced. Amsterdam (no longer "Back in" Amsterdam), for example, is still a gorgeous folk-pop harmonic romp, but it has been slowed down a notch (and maybe tuned down a tone or two???), and doesn't have the same freshness or appeal as the song I first heard on the listening post in Westport. So it's only a 96 instead of a 99.That being said, new listeners will truly marvel at the beautful vocal blends of the 2 main singers (who also frequently perform as a vocal duo), and should enjoy the wide variety of self-penned tunes on the disc.Each time I listen to "Thread" and their other albums, I always ask, "why hasn't this band hit it big yet?". New listeners will probably think the same thing.(You can learn more about the bank at www.boxset.com)"