Boys is essentially Nora Karlsson. The EP from Boys called Kind of Hurt drops on Friday via the awesomely up-and-coming label PNKSLM Recordings. Kind of Hurt is a blast of inventiveness in an era of easy indie. What separates these cuts from those of the band's peers is the care in the song-craft.
If "Dream" purrs like Julie Cruise fronting a Brill Building-era backing band, "Ever Before" is the updating of the work done by Temple Songs and The Pink Teens a few years ago (Jolan from The Pink Teens, the follow-on band to Temple Songs, has a connection to PNKSLM for his upcoming release as The Foetals). "Ever Before" nods in the direction of stuff like Black Tambourine and even the Cocteau Twins but it's altogether its own thing. And I love that about the track.
"Believe Anything" is a sort of update on early Mazzy Star filtered through a chamber pop sensibility, the traces of the blues replaced with precise studio alchemy, while EP closer "Stars and Lies" is like an early lineup of Stereolab attempting to write a song for Lesley Gore.
Music like this is rare and, as a result, hard to describe. When something breaks barriers between genres and melds styles this effortlessly, the results are more memorable than 90% of the indie rock being made today. Like the first singles I ever heard from Temple Songs, the tunes of Boys are haunting, beautiful, catchy, and pure pop in the very finest sense.
Kind of Hurt by Boys is out on Friday via PNKSLM Recordings.
Follow Boys on the band's official Facebook page.