"Cults’ debut, released in June, is one of my favorite albums of the year. The New York duo share a lot of common traits with Colorado band South Of France, so understandably, I’m really digging their debut, “Kings EP”.
The band’s origins revolved around music, as the duo, long time friends multi-instrumentalist and producer Jeff Cormack and singer Emily Ashley would sit around, listening to music and making CDs for each other. That is, until the day Emily brought a song she had written to Jeff that she wanted to him to produce. The song impressed the producer, who, after completing it decided that it would fit nicely amongst the songs he was working on and the two decided to form a band.
The result is the second track on the EP, “Reflections and Shadow Casting”, a tune that, after a seemingly upbeat opening, turns sombre for a small intro and then hits its stride just past the 30 second mark, when the drums kick in and both voices sing in unison. Musically, it sounds like something Cults’ might have put together, with male-female interplay and voices slathered in reverb and noise that evoke the sounds of the ’50s and ’60s while sounding very much present day.
The strength of the EP comes in its consistency. At just three songs, all roughly the same length, the songs flow incredibly well, and have just enough variation to keep things interesting. Opener “Kings” comes is much more upbeat than the other two, presenting a straight-up pop song in which voices trade off until the chorus, where Cormack takes charge, leaving his female counterpart to background “oooh’s” which add just the right amount of color.
The closing track “Ghost Rider” opens with a guitar riff that becomes a motif for the song and would not be out of place on a surf-pop record (in fact, it reminds me of a song that I can’t quite place). The song is layered with handclaps, the noise/reverb combination I mentioned earlier, and incredibly catchy melodies that make the tune hit all the right spots.
One thing the band should keep in mind for the future is to let their own voice shine through, because the EP’s biggest fault is that it teeters on the copycat line at times. The tunes are good, but are sometimes lacking in a bit of originality, considering how recent the Cults album is.
The band’s influences strike me as varying from the usual clichés up-and-coming artists usually name (note to those seeking coverage: classics are great, but they’re overdone, seek something new), and list Peter, Bjorn and John, Arcade Fire, Beach House, Cults, Sleigh Bells or Tame Impala as such.
A common factor among those bands is that they all created and insane amount of buzz when they started and were able to follow through with solid debut efforts (I personally don’t like Sleigh Bells, but our editors considered it the best album of last year, so that’s saying something). I’m just hoping South Of France’s debut, which will be completed by the end of January, follows suit. I’m looking forward to it." (Via: listenbeforeyoubuy.net)
The band’s origins revolved around music, as the duo, long time friends multi-instrumentalist and producer Jeff Cormack and singer Emily Ashley would sit around, listening to music and making CDs for each other. That is, until the day Emily brought a song she had written to Jeff that she wanted to him to produce. The song impressed the producer, who, after completing it decided that it would fit nicely amongst the songs he was working on and the two decided to form a band.
The result is the second track on the EP, “Reflections and Shadow Casting”, a tune that, after a seemingly upbeat opening, turns sombre for a small intro and then hits its stride just past the 30 second mark, when the drums kick in and both voices sing in unison. Musically, it sounds like something Cults’ might have put together, with male-female interplay and voices slathered in reverb and noise that evoke the sounds of the ’50s and ’60s while sounding very much present day.
The strength of the EP comes in its consistency. At just three songs, all roughly the same length, the songs flow incredibly well, and have just enough variation to keep things interesting. Opener “Kings” comes is much more upbeat than the other two, presenting a straight-up pop song in which voices trade off until the chorus, where Cormack takes charge, leaving his female counterpart to background “oooh’s” which add just the right amount of color.
The closing track “Ghost Rider” opens with a guitar riff that becomes a motif for the song and would not be out of place on a surf-pop record (in fact, it reminds me of a song that I can’t quite place). The song is layered with handclaps, the noise/reverb combination I mentioned earlier, and incredibly catchy melodies that make the tune hit all the right spots.
One thing the band should keep in mind for the future is to let their own voice shine through, because the EP’s biggest fault is that it teeters on the copycat line at times. The tunes are good, but are sometimes lacking in a bit of originality, considering how recent the Cults album is.
The band’s influences strike me as varying from the usual clichés up-and-coming artists usually name (note to those seeking coverage: classics are great, but they’re overdone, seek something new), and list Peter, Bjorn and John, Arcade Fire, Beach House, Cults, Sleigh Bells or Tame Impala as such.
A common factor among those bands is that they all created and insane amount of buzz when they started and were able to follow through with solid debut efforts (I personally don’t like Sleigh Bells, but our editors considered it the best album of last year, so that’s saying something). I’m just hoping South Of France’s debut, which will be completed by the end of January, follows suit. I’m looking forward to it." (Via: listenbeforeyoubuy.net)
