April 18, 2007

Headlights

Kill Them With Kindness

7 / 10 Headlights hail from the Illinois city of Champaign and, appropriately enough, on this, their debut full-length album, they’ve gone pop. Not pop in a Take That sense, but pop in the great American indie tradition of The Breeders – big tunes welded to even bigger guitars. Tracks such as ‘TV’ and ‘Lions’ sound like Giant Drag without Annie Hardy’s potty mouth, and when they plug in the wheezing electronics on ‘Signs Point To Yes (But Outlook Not So Good)’ they sound like the late Grandaddy without Jason Lytle’s beard. As well as all this there’s Erin Fein and Tristan Wraight’s bubbly harmonies but, just in case it all sounds too sickly sweet, the whole thing is spiked with a wonderfully woozy My Bloody Valentine weirdness.

Nathaniel Cramp

DOWNLOAD CHOICE: ‘Your Old Street’

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