Say No! To Being Cool Say Yes! To Being Happy
The Sunday Age
Sunday April 15, 2007
4/5
SAY NO! TO BEING COOL SAY YES! TO BEING HAPPYSoftlightes, ModularNow and then, a record hits the fun button so hard you grin with every spot-on chorus. This debut references the 1980s in burbling synths, mentions of robots and even a rose-tinted pondering on the departure of John Lennon. But it reviews rather than replays that decade, adding folk sensibility, harmonies worthy of the Bee Gees, and an almost elevator-smooth gloss of floating string effects. Negotiating indie-pop highs on Heart Made of Sound and energetic, dance-floor blips on The Robots In My Bedroom Were Playing Arena Rock, the contrasts in style never jam the flow. Rather, from the roving rhythm guitar and backing vocals of The Ballad of Theo & June, to the liminal synth of Girlkillsbear, it all travels in the same direction. Key track: Fairy-floss pop on If The World Had Cookies. -- Alexandra Roginski
© 2007 The Sunday Age