The new album from Canada's Skytone, Janglewaves, out now via TheBeautifulMusic.com, is something approaching yacht rock, with echoes of Milk and Honey-era Lennon and early Eighties Lindsey Buckingham abounding. It is also, if that statement didn't get your attention, the band's very best record to date. Effortless tuneful and near joyous in its execution, Janglewaves is the sort of thing that should get Skytone a whole lot of new fans.
If "Taking Our Time" and "Bright and Better Days" positively chime with a real rollicking grace, the more intricate "Second Hand Shops" offers up a kind of indie-pop that is eager to blend a few familiar genres at once. The title suggests a kind of self-awareness that indicates Skytone know their audience quite well, while the hook charms in a bigger, less anorak fashion. It is a big song, of indie-minded concerns. Elsewhere, "Lonely Holiday" rides a riff that sounds a tiny bit like something from Josef K with more modern production, while the sleek "Slow Down" suggests a whole generation of AM Radio tunesmiths from these shores from a few decades past. And to say that the music of Skytone here on Janglewaves owes as much to, say, Robbie Dupree as it does to Crowded House, is to say that the band have really hit a peak here in their output. The effortless blending of a whole lot of influences in the pursuit of that commonality from the band's many influences -- the big pop hook -- has allowed Skytone to make their most personal, sharpest record to date. Janglewaves is, quite obviously, a huge leap for this band and the sort of album that is easy to love and enjoy.
Janglewaves is out now via TheBeautifulMusic.com. You can get more details below, or via the band's official Twitter feed.
[Photo: Uncredited from the band's Bandcamp page]