YellowFever - YellowFever

In between meandering around their home country in a beaten up old hippy wagon, Texas’ YellowFever have released a handful of singles and EPs, which are brought together neatly in this 11-track compilation.

YellowFever offers minimalist art pop, with a guitar, drums and a couple of vocals allowing big open spaces that are occasionally filled with cheeky twangs of surf guitar or organ. Jennifer Moore’s voice is nicely detached in a Nico kind of way and is complimented by harmonies from Isabel Martin, as YellowFever sing simple and whimsical tales. With lyrics like, “The cutest boy I ever saw was drinking cider through a straw,” YellowFever’s songs are hypnotic, and, like indie nursery rhymes, will get stuck in your head between plays. With anti-folk leanings, comparisons to Moldy Peaches are perhaps inevitable (especially now that the trio has become a duo, after Martin permanently relocated to New York), and there is a similar cuteness about them, but they probably land closer to Young Marble Giants, or maybe what Vivian Girls would sound like if they didn’t drown their songs in guitar fuzz.

YellowFever is certainly rudimentary, but, while this sparseness is enjoyable in itself, the chronology of the tracks also shows pleasing progression in the band’s sound. The fact that the later songs are the album’s strongest - most notably the excellent Joe Brown - bodes well for YellowFever’s first proper album, which is due for release next year. For now though, this sweet, thirty-minute taster will sit well with those who like their indie to be lo-fi and DIY.

Best Coast - Crazy For You

Having caused a buzz with their early singles, California-based duo Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno release their debut long-player. Lyrically, it’s all summer lovin’, lazy hazy days and unobtainable boys. “I wish he was my boyfriend/I’d love him to the very end/But instead he is just a friend,” sings Cosentino on album-opener Boyfriend. Next, Jesus and Mary Chain-style reverb bleeds through some sweet Ronettes harmonies on the album’s title track. Cosentino has a lovely post grunge vocal that is effortless to the point of having a reluctance to it, like it’s a real drag sometimes for her to even summon up the words.

And so the album continues on with its evocative adolescent yearnings, like Vivian Girls getting stoned in their car and gazing at hot guys through the window while The Beach Boys play on the stereo. So far, so awesome, but the only slight problem is that, after a few tracks, it becomes clear there aren’t many musical dimensions to Crazy For You. Most songs adhere to mid-tempo garage-rock rather than offering any diversions. However, such lack of variety isn’t really a massive deal considering the 13 tracks are all over inside 30 minutes, and bolting on one of the more jaunty numbers, former single, When I’m With You, as a bonus track exits the album on the same high it came in on.

Hinting at greater things to come from Best Coast, Crazy For You is, at the very least, a musical escape - the coolest daydream of summers past. And that’s reason enough to be grateful.

The Vivian Girls - Everything Goes Wrong

Having recorded their eponymous debut album in just three days, Vivian Girls really took their time over their follow-up effort. Everything Goes Wrong took a massive six days to complete. That’s almost a whole week.

Their keenness to expedite the studio process (many of the songs were recorded in a single take) means this Brooklyn trio’s sound is unsurprisingly lo-fi. It certainly has its foot in the punk music camp - the clatter of rudimentary guitar, bass and drums with occasionally inaudible lyrics - but punk is only one of the influences here. If it all seems a little inaccessible at first, after a few listens some really rather lovely ditties shine through the abrasive exterior. Can't Get Over You, for instance, has - buried within some Jesus and Mary Chain fuzziness and some cool surf-guitars - harmonies that point in the direction of the Phil Spector Motown girl groups. It sounds like The Ronnettes crashing their car into L7, in a good way.

The lyrics are always simple, often with the same few lines repeated over. Despite this, the themes of doomed love and yearning are clearly defined, and are summed up by shoegazey album-closer, Before I Start To Cry, which is a downbeat yet beautiful way to end the record, with vocalist-guitarist Cassie Ramone singing in a suitably flat tone: “Just turn around and say goodbye, before I start to cry.”

Ultimately, the fact that Everything Goes Wrong is so raw means that the essence of their live shows is successfully transferred onto CD, which is not an easy thing to achieve.