Chris Robley & The Fear of Heights

NewFlash: THE DRUNKEN DANCE OF MODERN MAN IN LOVE is featured by the Willamette Week as one of the Best Portland Releases of 2007 alongside the likes of Menomena, Modest Mouse, and Elliot Smith. "Robley’s layered arrangements yield long-term rewards, as do his haunting turns of melodic and lyrical phrase. Catchy enough for teen-TV soundtracks and clever enough for critical acclaim."
Chatter
(Robley) has a challenge to pull off live the densely figured arrangements that grace his current poetic, evocative album, "The Drunken Dance of Modern Man in Love." Trust this multi-instrumentalist to come through.
-L.A. Times
(Drunken Dance) is without a doubt one of the strongest independent releases that has come into my hands this year.
-Shawn Kyle. Reax Music
’The Drunken Dance of Modern Man in Love’ is an unusual, evocative album, both musically varied and tuneful.
-All Music Guide.
Each song is a fully formed vignette that could stand alongside any "Sgt. Pepper" or Queen cut... Looks like these future rock stars paid attention in lit class in college and grew up to be hyper-literate songwriters and pastiche-pretty producers. We’ll watch with great interest where the Selzers, Robleys, Wards and Decemberists take us next.
-Don Campbell. The Oregonian
Robley’s knack for inspired pop arrangements is astounding, recalling Neutral Milk Hotel, the Beatles and especially Elliott Smith.
-John Chandler. Portland Monthly.
Melodic without being precious or over-the-top, sonically eclectic without being disjointed, Drunken Dance plays like a series of intelligent novellas-as-pop-songs. Its pleasures and intrigues are many, and very refreshing.
-bullz-eye.com
His poetic sensibility gives his music a depth and wisdom many young songwriters lack.
-San Francisco Examiner
Chris Robley is one of those mad scientists of pop-rock, whose baroque experiments include everything but the kitchen synth.
-Tucson Weekly
Despite themes that include nightmares, night sweats, prostitution, bombed out churches and man’s disrespect for nature, the music buoys the spirit.
-The Record Searchlight
Drunken Dance of Modern Man In Love is a bountiful improvement from a debut that was already impressive in its own right. Pick this one up. ASAP.
-ObscureSound.com
The Drunken Dance of Modern Man in Love is nothing short of outstanding in that it mixes and molds so many genres, yet still keeps a cohesive feel. Robley is a fine example of how breaking the boundaries is not only good for music, but essential.
-Tim Wardyn. Ink19
Robley’s second coming is even better than the first.... effortlessly literate.
-Serena Markstrom. Eugene Register-Guard
Poetic narratives of death’s shadowy life-affirming presence rise up to greet you.
-PopMatters.com
Criminally "unknown" singer/songwriter Chris Robley is a damned sophisticated standout.
-Phoenix New Times
I can’t remember the last time something this artsy didn’t annoy the crap out of me, but I guess that’s what happens when those rare, golden people who offer substance over self-congratulation make albums. Bless them.
- Eugene Weekly
"this Is the" deserves a place among your Elliot Smith, Badly Drawn Boy, John Lennon, and -- yes, even your Guns ’N Roses albums.
-Splendid e-zine
"this is the" is what John Lennon would be doing today if he wasn’t killed a quarter century ago.
-music liberation project
Making creative use of colors from Beatles pop to emo rock to lo-fi indie ache, "This Is The" is definitely unusually abundant in imagination and vision.
-Tamara Turner. CD Baby Editor (before I worked there... I promise)
Understated but assured pop abounds on this singer-songwriter’s first solo album. High praise in my book but fully warranted. He shows no lack of ambition in his arrangements. Full but never fussy, tasty but biting, familiar but fresh. Ace all around.
-Foxy Digitalis
The album could have ended up being mere studio trickery, but Robley’s songs are so strong he could deliver them given just an unamplified acoustic guitar. Robley’s singing, at his most urgent, recalls Lennon’s desperate-yet-melodic rasp, but it’s evident he’s not posturing to achieve the sound, just slipping comfortably into it like a pair of vintage Beatle boots that happen to perfectly fit his feet.
-Willamette Week (jeff rosenberg)
this is the is impressive, proving that Robley has found his voice, working in the great dissonant pop tradition discovered and delivered by the likes of John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen and Elliott Smith. Live, with his orchestra, though, Robley’s songs bloom.
-Willamette Week (Mark Baumgarten)
Left-of-the-dial enough to entice indie-rock fans over into the singer-songwriter world... Robley shakes things up so you never know what to expect, while keeping things tied together enough to make a cohesive album in a bed of experimentation.
-Alex Steininger. In Music We Trust
Chris Robley is a unique musical talent. Hell, I’ll say it: He’s a genius. True to form, his set last night was full of lush instrumentation, beautiful arrangements, and simply the best pop hooks. Check out Chris next time he plays or go out and buy "This is the..." You can thank me later.
-Casey at X58Radio.com
Though his acid wit and precarious song writing is compared with John Lennon, Robley is no Lennon pastiche... His songs are seldom depressing, though sometimes dark, and constructed with an intimate honesty.
-S.A. Life. Australia. Chris Clark
New Stop Motion Video for a Little Song that Will be Released in 2008!!!
... and here is another Type Foundry moment of profound historical importance, stunningly captured by Adam Selzer’s cell phone. That is B. Morrison performing the goofy duck calls on his baritone saxophone. Timing seems a bit off, though.
Tale Telling
I don’t know what to say. You’ve read this far. Thanks. So I just put out my second solo album "the drunken dance of modern man in love" ..throat Pop Records. It was recorded by Portland producer Adam Selzer (M. Ward, The Decemberists, Laura Gibson). My band "Chris Robley & the Fear of Heights" toured in the Fall and will again in the Winter to unload copies nationwide.
I also front Portland’s THE SORT OFs as we attempt to spread our unique breed of agitprop-prog-POPulism for the individual. I also-also occasionally find myself playing guitar/keyboards/bass/harmonies for The Imprints, Rachel Taylor Brown, and Norfolk & Western.
In my spare time I pursue full-contact banking and circuit bending. I work at a quaint little record shop called CD Baby , help out with a DIY Music podcast , and like to dork-out to Battlestar Gallactica with my wife Kristiana .