Most of my recent musical journeys have come about because of my teenage daughter's borderline fanatical infatuation with all things Conor Oberst. [He helped produce Tilly and the Wall's 2004 debut.] I was a bit apprehensive about a band that used a tap dancer as its percussionist, but as soon as "Rainbows in the Dark" began to blare out of the speakers, I was hooked. Kianna Alarid's and Neely Jenkins' voices provide the perfect blend for the sunshine pop that characterizes most of these group-written songs. The band does, however, slow things down on a couple tracks--the acoustic ballad "Love Song" and the piano-driven "Coughing Colors," both sung by guitarist Derek Pressnall. Not since the early Beach Boys or Lovin' Spoonful albums has there been a collection of songs that was this fun. The band plays with such exuberance that it's impossible not to get swept up in their euphoria--and what a trip it is! VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED [Running time - 41:43]

An exciting, gleeful, shout-and-sing-along album, which I love dearly. I got it having NO idea the band involved tap-dancing as percussion, but I just loved the driving percussive sound... I thought maybe it was a band of people playing buckets with drumsticks, if that helps give you an idea of the sound. It gives the whole album a kind of forward driving energy that's almost like gleeful cheerleaders romping their way through indie-folk-rock.

I just can't give the album five stars because when the male singer performs as a soloist, I find it just hard to listen to. "Coughing Colors" might be a good song in other hands, but when he sings it, it's very off-pitch and out of tune, and the tone is kind of nasal and whiny. It's not totally unbearable, but not pleasant either. And the whole album is so exciting, I find it very disconcerting that the big closing number is almost unlistenable. Otherwise, though, great album. Listen to "Bad Education," "Sing Songs Along," and "The Freest Man" for some great tap-dancing inspiring songs.

These albums are perfect. Listen especially, if you don't buy the CD, to Bad Education, Lost Girls, Rainbows in the Dark, and Sing Songs Along. But really, you should buy it, because both of these albums are perfect.

This band is magic. They've got a unique sound, gorgeous lead voices, and some very interesting and often touching lyrics. Other reviewers have covered the uplifting, strikingly "happy" aspect of their sound plenty well--and make no mistake, I'm with them; listening to Rainbows in the Dark and Sing Songs Along for the first time, I felt like somebody had turned on a light that I never even knew was off. What a sweet rush that was.

But to my ear this album becomes its strongest when it's at its most... caring. After the pep and angst of the first eight songs, it ends with the one-two punch of the glorious, liberating tune The Freest Man--and if you don't feel about that one the way I do, then maybe you haven't spent enough time being a lonely young man for whom things are not quite right--and finally Coughing Colors, a song that starts out sounding like it might be cloyingly sentimental but then drives and builds for six straight minutes into a radiant, devastating memorial to an unnamed girl I only wish I could have known. Oh this is not just a happy album. It is a beautiful one.

Tilly and the Wall is what happens when songs have babies. The obvious offspring of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," they are not an entirely female group-with Derek Pressnall on guitar and Nick White on keyboards-but the band's heart clearly resides in its trio of dancing wondergirls: Neely Jenkins, Jamie Pressnall and Kianna Alarid. Armed with tambourines, tap dancing shoes and really awesome hair, they leap into a joyous abandon on every song and instantly persuade you that something completely incredible has just happened, something worthy of the most jubilant celebration, but you're never quite sure what it is. And you don't care-because not caring has never been this much fun. And anyway, what can possibly be cooler than using a tap dancer as a "percussionist"? The answer, as you may have guessed, is a definitive "absolutely nothing." As if out to prove beyond the shadow of anyone's doubt that there's a reason why they're named after a children's book, Tilly's debut explodes with every ounce of that "enthusiastic hyperactivity" they boast of on their website, noting as well that it "set a precedent for" the identity of their young label, Conor Olberst's "Team Love," with music that is "original, smart, exuberant and, above all, easy to sing along to." If you think they sound a little proud of themselves, you probably haven't listened to "Bottoms of Barrells" yet. Check it out and you'll understand. This band is one of the most fascinating musical experiments to come along in quite some time.

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