1. “Floating Vibes” – A- 2. “Swim” – B 3. “Take It Easy” – B 4. “Harmonix” – B
5. “Neighbour Riffs” – C- 6. “Twin Peaks” – B 7. “Fast Jabroni” – B+ 8. “Slow Jabroni” – C 9. “Anchorage”- B 10. “Catholic Pagans” – B
Comments: What a fun way to start with “Floating Vibes”! There’s a very warm Spring/Summer feel to it. Certain parts of certain songs rescue them from being your average “chill-wave” offering. Now, now, I’m not going to be one of those critics who says this is exactly “chill-wave” because it’s not. I don’t even know what that means. This is a more sophisticated form of shoe-gaze rock that seems like it could either be loved or hated depending on who you ask. Side note: I have a feeling this band ran out of good song titles. Just to clarify. This album isn’t Best New Music material. In my books, a B- is just barely above average. So yeah, that’s exactly what this LP is.
*Rough Trade Records named this the top album of 2009. But is it? In my never ending quest to find great music, I am reviewing this LP! But wait…I already named my top 5 albums of 2009. That’s tentative, though. So let’s see about this.
Comments: This is the first band to actually cause my sub-woofer to make crazy ass noises. There are some pretty cool beats and stuff like that, but this record isn’t that special. Vocals are kind of shabby and not really unique at all. The “chill-wave” that this record embodies is limited in the sense that you can only stare at your shoes for so long before you fall asleep. In essence, the only things that save this from mainstream success are the male vocals and the consistent darkness and ambiance. Pop music usually doesn’t regard the latter as positive or particularly marketable. And to some degree, I can see a lot of independent-minded people shunning this kind of music or writing it off as done before, or what have you. The album begins to crumble after the third song, but there are some cool spots after that.
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 