I picked a pic I found from the band's Facebook page of Literature behind D.C.'s Black Cat to remind myself that I'm an idiot for missing the band's recent gig there with Expert Alterations. Now that I get up at 5:30 in the morning for work, I've got so much less enthusiasm for seeing work-night shows in D.C. or Baltimore.
Or maybe I'm just old? Still, I'm not too old to not enjoy the youthful pop of Literature. Their last album, the spry Chorus, is available via Slumberland Records and it's still a charmer, in case you haven't grabbed it yet.
Songs you may have heard already are here, like "Tie-Dye (Your Life)" with its swooning backing vocals, rippling Roddy Frame-aping guitar hooks, and glorious chorus. Likewise, stuff like "Court/Date" add a slightly sleek veneer to the sort of indiepop that owes equal debts to the melodies of The Smiths and the guitar effects of the Cocteau Twins.
And if "New Jacket" can be described at all, it's best written about as a sort of breathless update of "Lost Outside The Tunnel" by Aztec Camera. Sublime, aching, and full of promise, this is -- like a lot of the cuts on this record -- the sort of thing that reaffirms your faith in indie rock.
The joyous and totally unnecessary guitar rave-out that closes "Jimmy" made me grin like a fool, while album closer "Kites" warmed my old heart with its layers of guitars and breathy vocals.
All in all, Chorus by Literature remains a pretty flawless piece of indie rock. Giving jangle-pop a good name, the lads in Philadelphia's Literature have sort of reclaimed some things from earlier Brit influences to make music that manages to sound fresh and wholly worthy of comparison to tunes from Aztec Camera.
And if those weren't all great reasons to love this band, they went and named a song after an old TV movie they are not possibly old enough to remember. There's a new video for album opener "The Girl, The Gold Watch, and Everything" and you can play that below.
Chorus is out now via Slumberland Records. Follow Literature on official Facebook page.