First thing first, I'm with you. That title? Ugh, it might as well be "Jamaican Me Crazy!" But once you glance away from the iPod screen, this track from Kiwi home recording savant Ryan McPhun is beguiling. At its onset, his marble mouthed vocals and an ever twisting electronic palette makes it sound like a mellowed out Alden Penner song from the sadly imaginary second Unicorns album. After a quick instrumental interlude exalting the coming spring, the track fades into a more sincerely spaced out blur. McPhun's dueling high registers and the pounding beat they glide around recall the grace only very sledomly achieved in the finest moments of the also defunct Grandaddy. While stitching together the aesthetics of bands whose time was abruptly cut short would be a worthy marketing plan on its own, the whole four minutes are bound by McPhun's woozy songwriting sensibility. Like a terminally forgetful goldfish circling its bowl, each familiar corner brings a new sense of discovery.
I hate it when I like a band's visual/verbal aesthetic and not the music. Actually, that often happens with electronic artists--despite the lack of lyrics, they usually seem to be the most poetically inclined. Maybe it's because the poetically inclined see lyricism as too constraining/ enslaved to the music?
Also, band names. I want to love, say, "Atlas Sound." I just can't. It's some balls.
actually, this band, and particularly this song, is simply divine.
elizabeth
great album, great american apparel ad on the side.
definitely no
well, it is ok...i give it a 5.5..great effort..it sounds like a christmas song..but it ok..too much sing along song, plus it songs like a song back in the day but great effort..:)
ur mom
Beautifully crafted. The softness in their voices makes me melt and move and dance. It's wonderful.
Elle
this album is all over the place in such a great way... the following song goes from space to england... i have this disc squeezed onto a burn with kurt vile... song 9.5 out of 10, album 8.5 out of 10
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Surprised this album hasn't gotten more press.
Pitchfork gave it a Best New Music. That's about the best kind of press a young indie band can get these days, no?
I hate it when I like a band's visual/verbal aesthetic and not the music. Actually, that often happens with electronic artists--despite the lack of lyrics, they usually seem to be the most poetically inclined. Maybe it's because the poetically inclined see lyricism as too constraining/ enslaved to the music?
Also, band names. I want to love, say, "Atlas Sound." I just can't. It's some balls.
actually, this band, and particularly this song, is simply divine.
elizabeth
great album, great american apparel ad on the side.
definitely no
well, it is ok...i give it a 5.5..great effort..it sounds like a christmas song..but it ok..too much sing along song, plus it songs like a song back in the day but great effort..:)
ur mom
Beautifully crafted. The softness in their voices makes me melt and move and dance. It's wonderful.
Elle
this album is all over the place in such a great way...
the following song goes from space to england...
i have this disc squeezed onto a burn with kurt vile...
song 9.5 out of 10, album 8.5 out of 10
dave