Promise Of Love

Believe it or not kids, there was a time when not every band you ever came across sounded like either Coldplay or The Frames. And a lovely time it was, too. Sorely missed are those halcyon days when unpretentious American lo-fi was as common on the mainstream musical vista as cowshit is in a field. Fortunately, American Analog Set have taken it upon themselves to pick up where Sebadoh, Swirlies, Spinanes and their wondrous ilk left off.

For those of you who are stuffed to the gills with the hyper-emotional outpourings of many bedwetting indie schmindie contenders, here is an album that is effortlessly beautiful, devoid of emotional grandeur (or delusions thereof), yet is understated, simple and cool for all the right reasons. American Analog Set don’t take you to dark, lonely places in your heart or your head, and the great thing is that they don’t claim to. More often than not, the emphasis is on creating a wall of sound, in much the same way bands like My Bloody Valentine did, upon which they hang simple but endearing songs. The album moves to the rhythm of a groovy Stereolab-like beat, punctuated by the Buffalo 66-esque ‘Modern Drummer’, and the truly stunning and dreamlike ‘You Own Me’, which should be filed away somewhere alongside the Smashing Pumpkin’s ‘Rhinoceros’, and is a head-in-hands moment if ever there was one. ‘ Bedwetters, take note.