Invitation

Happy and hilariously dippy flower pop. Unabashedly retro. Fleetwood Mac goes electric. Oh, and there are synths. Hella sunshine synths. These guys could be the Scissor Sisters with pan pipes. Or even, hell, MGMT. Hall and Oates? The 80s, they're errywhere! Sean Bateman would call this "Duran Duran music". Their lead singer used to tour with Girls. It shows. Not a single bad track.

try: 5, 4, 10 (no missteps here, any cut is recommended)
no FCCs

1. (3:45) groovy midtempo. tinkling infectious tom petty guitar, fat bass, cheesy synth. hooky and fun. sounds like, of all people, prince.
2. (3:30) cheesy island hop. deep drums, winds, cool strum pattern. did someone say vampire weekend?
3. (4:44) sunshine synth. sweet and mellow jangle pop. the synths are sort of darling. the rolling stones shimmer guitar doesn't hurt.
*4. (3:18) mellow drum machine and layered hi-reg orb synth. twinkling keys and surprisingly ballsy bass. too fast to slow dance to, yet perfect for 80s prom.
*5. (3:38) the single. exuberant and infectious, yet groovy. disco, essentially. how these guys got away with skiffying the main riff from 'centerfold' (j geils -- trust me, you know the song) is beyond me, but fuck it, it's a great psych pop song. bring on the rock flute. the chorus is just genius.
6. (4:44) super hi-reg plink keys, video game bloop bass, drum machine. scattershot sound, lots of space. unexpected yet cool dropshift in the last minute or so steals the show. i like it in theory, though minus the vox it would make a much better sega soundtrack.
7. (3:18) soaring & spritely synth over syncopated funky strums.
8. (2:36) bashy, rapid and reverb-heavy. sounds more like the handsome furs than anything else on the record. make that unnervingly like the handsome furs.
9. (1:28) plink piano and slow acoustic. vox halfway in. sweet, but, why?
*10. (5:12) supa-chill soft rock padded synth. dreamy 80s pop. mellow sax breakdown. the whole thing totally works.
11. (3:26) ominous organ intro, then creepy steel drum effects. hooky electric riff over insistent yet milky synth. minor and harsh.
12. (3:33) cooker electric over stick strums: god help me, a guitar sound that's influenced by no one if not johnny marr. deep and lasting groove. basically a jam, but never boring. i'm sort of impressed with how the last few cuts on this album hold their weight.