I like the new one from Van Chamberlain but it's driving me crazy trying to think of what it sounds like. In The Sun, out today via Very Jazzed, is a decent record, though lots of it is reminiscent of nearly anything cool you've liked in the recent few decades.
Opener "Heavy Cloud" lumbers with the sort of lovely pseudo-heaviness that The War on Drugs and Tame Impala strive for, while "Light Years" succeeds a bit more. This one, like the better numbers here, knicks a dash of Britpop to give the jams here a rough catchiness. If "Light Years" sounds a tiny bit like recent album tracks from Ride, "The Other Side" goes even further up that road, enough that the cut takes on a deliberateness that could make a listener forget that this duo was from New York City, not England. Elsewhere, "Simic" and "Smiley Face" gamely add in subtle touches of the same kind of proto-psychedelia that Temples chased, even as "Empty Scheme" hits a high point on In the Sun thanks to its melodic heft.
There's no dud on this album from Van Chamberlain, but a listener can't help but feel that so much of this has been heard before. Still, In The Sun kept me more interested throughout its length than the last few albums from The War on Drugs and Tame Impala. And as the duo seems to be aiming for that demographic of listener, that should come as a ringing endorsement.
In The Sun is out today on Very Jazzed.
[Photo: ForceFieldPR]