We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace & Magic

Bi-coastal male duo -- originally from LA, but now in Olympia and Brooklyn -- offer up their second long-form release. The basic vibe is a late sixties / early seventies pop-rock sampler, with references including the softer sides of Dylan and the Kinks and the Rolling Stones, occasional girl-group backing vox, Wall of Sound production, faux-funk, and buried guitar solos. Also reminiscent of Guided By Voices in how each song works through disparate (and often unfinished) retro-song snippets, with varying levels of success. But when the retro and the present find each other in the right proportions, the results are top-notch pop that may not stay underground for long.

FCC: #2

1. med, gentle pop opener
2. FCC ("asshole"), med-, faux-Dylan vox
3. * varies, packing ten years of music into one song. Slow contemplative bits, rave-ups, children's choruses, Neil Young single-note solos, etc.
4. * dn+, sappy, silly love song with echoes of Scott Mackenzie
5. med-, mostly instrumental (just bah-bah-bah vox), something of a palate cleanser after the preceding two songs
6. med-, slow-faux-funk with rock-ish bridges, frustrating in its juxtapositions (i.e. parts I love, parts I hate, all in a 3-minute package)
7. med, mid-70 Stones, "Missing You" but without Mick's sneering edge?
8. * med/varies, sprawling across genres
9. dn/varies, more Abbey Road Beatles-y with a darker, spacey turn in the middle that bails out to solo piano/off-key vox