Sure, it is very, very nice - you won't find anything that will scare your nan - but here on Two Sunsets that is definitely a good thing. With carefully picked melodies and a joyfully lazy pace this is an album that feels like a sit down with a cup of tea and a good book.
With The Pastels' experience seeking out and releasing Japanese pop-folk records on their Geographic label, the progression to collaborating with Japanese pop duo Tenniscoats is a natural one. And the influence is clear, and not just on the several tracks with Japanese vocals, including Title track 'Two Sunsets', but also in the space and atmosphere in the songs. The result feels distinctly inclusive.
And it is inclusive because these tunes are just so approachable and the instrumentation so interesting. The songs are catchy as hell even when the vocals are intelligible. BlackPlastic struggles to come up with an example of anything similar that doesn't hail from Iceland - a telling thing given how successful Sigur Rós continue to be despite very rarely singing in a language that much more than half a million people on the planet even understand.
BP x
Two Sunsets is out now on Domino, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD.