Telekinesis!
Telekinesis
(Merge/Inertia)
Power pop is a very hit and miss affair. Significant artists of the genre such as The Posies and Teenage Fanclub are a long way from the norm, they’re exceptions lifted from a glut of lifeless melodic goop. Often overly fixated on forging golden vocal harmonies and perfect choruses, lesser examples of this music can be tirelessly dull. Which makes it all the more surprising that Seattle songwriter Telekinesis (aka Michael Benjamin Lerner) wins me over with these very same tools.
The album opens without any real introduction: it falls straight into a vocal hook six seconds into song one, a bright acoustic number called 'Rust'. The remainder of the album is similarly concise, tracks like 'Coast of Carolina' and 'Tokyo' are fuller arrangements but are almost entirely propelled by seamless vocal melodies. In the rare instances where Lerner’s multi-tracked voice isn’t at the forefront, he leans toward a creamy guitar lead or, in the case of 'Awkward Kisser', a bouncy keyboard figure to carry things along. Nary a track breaks the three minute mark (or a sweat) and these tunes arrive and depart in a fashion reminiscent of Guided By Voices, another American pop band similarly and admirably obsessed with brevity.
If those song titles weren’t a give away, this is some pretty saccharine stuff, made more so by production courtesy of Death Cab For Cutie’s Chris Walla. Crisp to the point of clinical, the album seldom favours the adventurous or unexpected almost as if it has no need of such things. Instead, what Telekinesis have offered here is a clear idea of some great songs.
Ian Rogers