After already carving the name all over my indie pop loving heart with last years incredible "Hey Boy" single my expectations were left slightly short on initial listening, however given time the majority of the tracks here revealed themselves to be absolute pop gems. Admittedly "Hey Boy" and "Superball" which we'd already heard are still the best of the pick, the latter perhaps even being better than the former, still the closing trio of Sailin, Little Red Radio and Cry With Me Baby brought the album to an exceptional close, more smooth 60's in sound than the songs we'd heard before. A fantastic album that gets better with each listen.
Having already given us a taste of their impeccable pop wares with the terrific single 'Hey Boy' (released last year on Goner), this talented bunch of (alarmingly young) musicians deliver their full-length via True Panther, a label that's currently home to up-and-comers like Delorean, Girls and Tanlines. Memphis manages to sound indebted to the greats of American pop, like Brian Wilson and Phil Spector yet without resorting to a retro production sound. Instead, the record sounds full, modern and detailed, thanks partly, no doubt, to the recording by Shane Stoneback, (a mixing engineer whose credits include Vampire Weekend, Sleigh Bells... and even the mighty N'Sync). Stacked with vocal harmonies and upbeat, breezy arrangements the album opens in fine fashion with the brilliant 'Phone' which packs a remarkably well-constructed, hook-laden song into just two minutes. The track is buoyed by horns, strings and harpsichord-like keyboard sounds, setting a template carried over into the equally inscrutable 'Little Red Radio' - a kind of cross between Teenage Fanclub and The New Pornographers. Upon its release last year, 'Hey Boy' sounded freakishly brilliant, but here it's just another track, nestled among songs that are easily its equals: 'Superball', 'Candy' and the excellent 'Skateland' in particular. Recommended.
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