26 May 2012 — Henning Lahmann
Night-People's Shawn Reed sent over the latest
Blanche Blanche Blanche LP
Wink With Both Eyes the other day but for some inexcusable reason it got buried somewhere deep down in my inbox, and I would've forgotten about it completely were it not for my friends over at
Ad Hoc. Yesterday, Matt Sullivan admirably
reviewed the record, calling it "one of the best pop albums of the year so far", and now that I've listened properly, I can only emphatically agree. The Brattleboro, Vermont outfit has delivered a stupendous effort, lo-fi and weird yet consistently catchy as hell and very sophisticated. Below you may listen to my favorite song, though they're all kinda great, but "Mercantile Rugs" in particular hits all the right spots with its gently melancholic sheen when singer Sarah Smith sincerely and somewhat naively aks, "Where do we go from here?", over and over again on top of ingenuous synth chords and an oddly joyful acoustic guitar. Picture-perfect, faithful pop music, highly recommended.
Wink With Both Eyes is out now on
Night-People. Stream the whole LP via
Ad Hoc.
