January 17, 2011

Album Review: Sun Airway - Nocturne Of Exploded Crystal Chandelier (Dead Oceans)

Tuneful but mismatched

4 / 10 The chillaxing enterprise of Philadelphia duo Patrick Marsciell and Jon Bathmus, Sun Airway’s inaugural effort sounds like your dad’s attempts to muscle in on your glo-fi collection 12 months too late. Coldplay meets Toro Y Moi, Empire Of The Sun meets Animal Collective — there’s not a commercial/edgy mismatch too far for this lot, whose use of swaddling synth washes and skittering drum patterns can’t disguise a polite conservatism at work here. It’s tuneful enough but, really, the case for the dismantling of 2010’s nostalgic apparatus starts here. Less hypnagogic pop, more over-the-hillwave.

Alex Denney

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