Secret Cities: "Love Crime"

Secret Cities is a pair of dudes from North Dakota, who dropped a promising if unfulfilling LP last year in Pink Graffiti. "Love Crime" is a preview of their new record, which they recorded under a three month limitation, and it sounds like what would happen if Bon Iver got his early 60s pop on, or a less warbly version of the track that Ryan Gosling plays in that Blue Valentine preview. It's big, smiling melodies are given just the right amount of haunting melancholy with the vocal harmonies, ending up with something both bright and dark, both uplifting and downtrodden. The new Secret Cities drops Mar. 29, and it's called Strange Hearts. [Stereogum]