12 Desperate Straight Lines

Oh, this is a break-up album... filled with sunshiny poppy twinkly beamy hooky positively bursting cute-as-shit bubblegum indie rock awesomeness. The Cure were masters of this "I sound happy, but I'm heartbroken as fuck!" gimmick, and this whole record is soaked in it -- that or rainbow-coloured glitter tears. It's a rare band that hooks you with a single song, but these guys had me at Coast of Carolina... like two years ago. Surprise surprise, they've come through on their promise to not suck.

Telekinesis! is Michael Benjamin Lerner. He wears emo glasses. He has this thin, airy high & fragile voice that sounds, at times, much like Elliott Smith's. His producer is Chris Walla (ie, Death Cab). They recorded this album to tape. You do the math. Super insider bonus: That's Cody Votolato (Blood Brothers / Jaguar Love) on guitar. SUPER insider bonus: The name of this record is "12 Desperate Straight Lines". Lulz.

WATCH OUT! This album is gapless. Finger on the fader, kids.

RIYL: Say Hi, The Arcade Fire, Built to Spill, We Were Pirates, Heatmiser

try: 9, 5, 6, 1, 12
FCC: 2

*1. shins-esque intro: light folky strumming and airy melodic vox, bursts into cute xylophone pop. failed relationship ditty about skipping town and starting over. fade out the last 30 seconds.
2. FCC "shit" hard drums and piercing gritty electric. sharp, attitudinal vox. dancey, nice soary 80s (cough the cure) riff. great choice for safe harbour. "i'm not gonna let you down but i'm not gonna help you up."
3. grunge guitar. hella built to spill. a la "strange". then: nekkie vibey guitar, lots of space. nirvana-on-slo-mo chorus.
4. raw jagged guitar and oppositional bass. syncopated and harsh. sounds a bit like that new get up kids track, 'automatic'. "you never get things done! yeah i think you're lazy!"
*5. cute laid-back boppy pop: "it was a disaster." bells, keys, tambourine. dancey in a summer dress picnicky way. niiice beamy electric guitar, and a riff a few clicks off from "lola" (kinks).
*6. takes ~15 sec of padded drumming + ambience to start, but explodes into a shimmery pretty upbeat pop song with lyrics like "will i die alone?". dancey bassline, cymbals, handclaps, adorable "whoa oh" sing-song chorus.
7. fast ruddering punky pop, pompy drum kit and zig-zag guitar. noisy, built-to-spill-ish, but never out of control. it's all over in under 90 seconds.
8. starts with ~15 sec of commercial sample. jagged jutty rock, very loud and focal drum kit. punky. reminds me of brainiac's "i could own you", but not as fast.
*9. menacing lo-fi vox and unplugged guitar for the first 30 sec, and then hard-hitting jutting dark dancey rock. ominous and rockin'. think: the arctic monkeys at half speed. echoes of the faint. ends with tape-scratch vox. hella heatmiser.
10. beaming singing electric over rudder bass and jagged grunge guitar. nice clappy cloppy drums. springsteen, etc.
11. super airy shoegazey hymnal. slow, drumless dreamscape. think: underwater piano. as in, a long-sunken ghost ship's haunted player piano.
*12. kicks off to a 12-bar start. pompy, strutty, confident. oh-so-cute "ba-ba"s. reminds me of that 1990s record, 'kicks'. there's a singalong!