[Captured Tracks, 2010]
I've been pretty slow at getting into Wild Nothing, a band led by a man called Jack Tatum from Blacksburg, Virginia, who play luscious, dreamy lo-fi indiepop. Along with contemporaries such as Beach House and Avi Buffalo, they've been part of what has been quite an interesting year for American indie rock, but have a much more poppy slant than either of these two bands. Wild Nothing have much more in common with old-school British C86 bands like the Field Mice than with much of the rest of the modern American music scene, bar some of the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart's more dreamy moments. They manage to blend this with a touch of what sounds to me like electro of the early New Order type, making a very enjoyable album from start to finish, albeit one with more than a hint of 'background music' about it. Some of this album, such as the second track, Summer Holiday, gets pretty close to the quality of the very best of its forebears. Nothing very original, but it is hard not to make an enjoyable album with influences like these, and Wild Nothing succeed surprisingly well. The fact it boasts my favourite artwork of the year is a bonus.
I can see this album making many end-of-year lists, not least my own, but find it hard to imagine that I'll still be listening to it regularly 5 years down the line. The onus is on Wild Nothing to push forward this potential and write a second album with which they can definitively state that they have something new to offer to the dreampop world.
Here's a video for my favourite song on the album, Summer Holiday.
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