Correatown - Pleiades

Correatown - L.A. songwriter Angela Correa takes her band into some new plush and fuzzy electronic environs on this meticulously crafted, birkenstock-gazing sophomore album produced by Dan Long // Release: Pleiades (September 20) // Sounds like: the austere organics that saturated Correatown's 2007 album Spark. Burn. Fade. have, well, faded this time around, replaced by a slow swirling mix of drifting, droning guitar lines, interesting time signatures and dense synth washes...what hasn't changed? Correa's distinctive dichotomy at work in her singing: cool/warm, distant/intimate vocals that have just the right amount of detachment while pulling you closer...how does something this blithe exhibit such ponderous seriousness? Not sure, but we like it. A lot...

Quote: “...I kept imagining the sounds and instruments that would shape the direction of our new songs. The most appealing were really freaked out thick and pulsing bass sounds or odd twitchy static noises tucked into shimmering and ethereal melodies. I wasn’t sure how it could end up being beautiful but the more the band explored different arrangements and instruments, the more I felt the possibility of having a less organic sound that felt more evocative of the music we wanted to create..." // What we like: while there are layers of sound at play behind Correa's songs, there's enough space to give the instruments -- and her voice -- room to stretch out..."Shine Right Through" is a masterful mix of tension and release while the playful piano refrains, handclapped off-beats and a cooing synth bed of "Further" sounds like Correa is aiming for the plugged-in pop power of The Bird and the Bee and Bat For Lashes..."Valparaiso" and "Play" remind us of a low-keyed atmospheric updates on a classic 60's girl group sound -- Lesley Gore and the Go-Go's meet Belle and Sebastian and the Cocteau Twins?

 

Correatown - "Further" (from Pleiades)

Correatown - "Valparaiso" (from Pleiades)