This is a good week for Slumberland Records; The label just served up a superb record from Oakland's Blue Ocean, and now they've got an EP from New Jersey's Lightheaded. It seems both coasts are feeding the Slumberland sound.
Good Good Great is buoyant and sleek. There's a mix of jangle-pop and New Wave (of a sort) here that is infectious on first listen. "Mercury Girl" (named after the same label's Mercury Girls?) is a neat mix of the sleek textures of Eighties synth-pop (think The Cure circa The Head on the Door) with layers of melodicism. That one is a highlight here on this EP, as is the brief "The Garden", a tune that seems to owe a debt to both Blondie and Glo-Worm. "Patti Girl" revs up that formula a bit, while closer "Love is Overrated" offers a more spacious version of this style of music.
Fully realized and full of shiny tonal surfaces, this stuff goes down like honey. Lightheaded do so much here with just a few elements. And yet, the tunes on Good Good Great are distinct, with each a little pop gem. Vocally, this aligns with the recent Jeanines records on this imprint, and musically with the Papercuts and Peel Dream Magazine ones. But Lightheaded are pursuing their own thing and this is just a hint, I'm sure, of future glories to come.
Good Good Great by Lightheaded is out tomorrow via Slumberland Records.
[Photo: Lightheaded / Slumberland Records]