NO KIDS
COME INTO MY HOUSE
TOM108 | released: 19/02/2008 | CD
via Anost (Europe) via SCD (USA) Bearded Magazine
The smart kids are taking over ?
br> The smart kids are taking over ? across the pond at least. Vampire Weekend may talk of mansard roofs and Oxford commas, but they seem like oiks compared to No Kids. Unashamedly smart and posh, and combining pop nous with super-sophisticated arrangements, No Kids have come up with a genuinely original sound ? a rare thing indeed. Melancholy chamber-pop with sumptuous string arrangements; ultra-modern RnB; swoony 70s AM pop; breezy Latin grooves? this lot can do it all, sometimes within the same song. Fitting more ideas into its 41 minutes than some bands manage in a career, ?Come into My House? is an object lesson in economy. It?s brainy but emotional, complex yet packed with great melodies. The three-piece quote Hollywood director Douglas Sirk (the inspiration for Todd Haynes? classic Far From Heaven) as their main influence, here they follow his lead with twelve stories that seem like fragments from an F Scott Fitzgerald collection set to music. The record is full of highlights: opener ?Great Escape? is gorgeously melancholy and autumnal. ?For Halloween? would make a great single, its complicated yet addictive vocal arrangements swooping all over the place: ?All I wanted was to find a new love / not stroll around streets with houses decked out for Halloween?. The falsetto vocals introduce a hint of Timberlake ? and ?The Beaches All Closed? is the greatest song he?s never sung. Swooning strings meet mad Timbaland-style skittering rhythms, to make a futuristic waltz. Elsewhere, we encounter Latin percussion and horns on ?I Love the Weekend, Neighbour?s Party? and ?You Look Good to Me?; vocoders meet Chet Baker on ?Listen For It / Courtyard Music? and ?Old Iron Gate? throws in the kitchen sink and somehow still works. Unsurprisingly, that patron saint of brainy neurotics David Byrne has playlisted 5 of these songs on his radio show. Join him: this album is a timeless gem, existing in a perfect world of its own making. Now where?s that college application? Ben Wood
http://beardedmagazine.co.uk/wp/?p=80