Waking up in a sweat, be it cold or hot, is never a good feeling. Frustratingly enough, that’s exactly what happened to me Tuesday morning. And with Summer-like warmth, stagnantly humidity, thunderstorm warnings and heavy rainfall the order of the day I remained pretty uncomfortable until the almost tropical moistness gave way to somewhat cooler, drier air a couple of hours ago.
It’s 1:54 AM Wednesday morning as I write this. That means I spent closer to 24 hours than not feeling as though I was locked in a steam-room. That’s not something I was psyched about at all. It did however remind me of the last time I stayed in southern California at the home of my grandparents, two elderly cranks who didn’t believe in air conditioning, even when temperatures hit triple digits.
As you might expect, this mental association between the left-coast and the weather pattern here in New England informed my listening habits in the ensuing hours. And so, I found myself, sticky and uncomfortable as I was, listening to the music of Pacific!, a two-man Electro-Pop group from Gothenburg, Sweden.
When one thinks of warm weather Sweden isn’t the first place that’s likely to jump to mind. But with a name like Pacific! and song titles like “Sunset Blvd.” and “Poolside Bungalow” the duo’s sun-drenched aspirations should be pretty plain. In fact, while the group draws from the seemingly disparate worlds of sunny ’60s Pop-Rock, Disco, Glam, ’80s New Wave & Synthpop, the wussy Soft-Rock of the late-’70s & early-’80s and modern-day Electro, the sound of their debut LP Reveries could be summed up as Brian Wilson meets Justice (or Daft Punk at least).
That’d be oversimplifying of course, as Synthpop enthusiasts and devotees of contemporary acts like Phoenix, Fujiya & Miyagi, The Chromatics, The Teenagers, Thieves Like Us and even Blogarhythms favorites Hot Chip are sure to find things to dig about the disc. But the way they spread honey-toned vocal harmonies over retro-drum-machine beats, jerky synths heavily effected guitar stabs and persistent cowbell on “Break Your Social System” reinforces the “Beach Boys by way of Ed Banger” compartmentalizing in a big way.
Pacific! “Break Your Social System”
I’m feeling the album as whole, but aside from “Break Your Social System” you’ll want to keep your ears open for the shimmery guitars of “Disappear,” the glistening synths of “Sunset Blvd.” and the clipped snares, smooth keys and silky guitar soloing of the Soft Rock-versus-Quiet Storm ballad “Love Isn’t Always On Time.” The latter tune being ideal background music for those sweaty activities that don’t have anything to do with the weather.
Singer and multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Jay is actually from a Pacific-coast city, namely Los Angeles, but the last time I mentioned him in this space I was recommending his Airwalker EP as cold-weather listening material. He’s just dropped a new full-length, A Place Where We Could Go, and while it feels as sparse and deserted as Airwalker, it’s a really different kind of record that feels a bit more “California” to me somehow.
The comparisons to The Cure and Joy Division feel less appropriate now. The new songs are even more stripped down and less bassy, like the lo-fi Rock ‘N Roll of the ’50s minus the youthfully energetic naiveté. This time Jay feels more drugged than depressed, like a hippie hallucinating about frolicking in a daisy-filled meadow when he’s really in a sleazy trash-strewn alley. And there’s a scummy psychedelic-tinged ’60s throwback folkiness to songs like “Heavenly Creatures” that I associate with sunlight (the kind that leaves black dots floating in your field of vision), flower-children and the West Coast for some reason.
Jeremy Jay “Heavenly Creatures”
Even so, Jay’s new, largely acoustic take on Post-Punk is still dark. So much so that it might feel more suited to dusk, the times when warmth and wetness conspire to blot the sun out with black rainclouds, or (as it’s doing right now) the breeze-cooled night after an unusually hot day.
No offense to Jay, but hopefully I won’t feel compelled to repeat the cool-down process tonight.