With modesty and skill, the players in Soft Science take the indie form and do it very, very well. There's no re-inventing the wheel here, but there doesn't need to be. Lines, the new one from this group is out today via Shelflife and it's one of this week's very best offerings.
The players have pedigrees; Katie Haley was in Holiday Flyer, and California Oranges, and brothers Ross and Matt Levine were in Welt, The Tank, California Oranges, while Tony and Becky Cale were in English Singles, Arts & Leisure. They are joined here on Lines by Hans Munz. The music that results veers into spry jangle-rock ("True"), chiming indie ("Deceiver"), and New Order-y textural electronica ("Polar"). Throughout the record, they take the songcraft seriously, and each cut stands on its own as a nice distillation of exactly what this sort of thing can be when it's at its best. "Grip" reminds me of Velocity Girl, while the very bright "Kerosene" marries that sort of thing with surfaces that suggest both O.M.D. and Curve. All along, the musicians here keep things catchy, and nothing on Lines is over-thought or belabored. This is straightforward indie-pop that will likely charm anyone who reads this site as much as it charmed me.
Lines by Soft Science is out today via Shelflife.
[Photo: Chantel Elder]