It's been nearly six years since Minneapolis band Real Numbers dropped their fine Wordless Wonder on Slumberland Records. In the interim, they've released a song or two, added a few band members, and refined their approach to what we'd be right to call jangle-pop. That sounds like such a simple term, but when the form is done so correctly, as it is here on Brighter Then, the group's new EP, it's a term that's a high compliment.
The title cut positively chimes, even as "Darling" adds a few more shades to the sonics. It sounds a bit to these old ears like Black Tambourine, which is fitting, of course, but it also sounds a tiny bit like The Drums. "Old Cross" and "In the End" are more complex, a mix of C86-style jangle with the brand of literate music that The Clientele have become masters at making.
This band's sound has grown, clearly, but there's still the same delights here that there were on their earlier releases, only now slightly darker in tone, more quietly elaborate in execution. Real Numbers conjure up ebullient indie-pop so easily that it's hard not to love everything on Brighter Then.
Brighter Then is out on Friday via Slumberland Records.
More details on the Real Numbers Facebook page.
[Photo: Slumberland Records]