Release date: July 21st
Record label: Fort Lowell
Genre: Synthpop, new wave, indie pop, post-punk
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: Colors of Your Brain
Fans of a certain strain of underground indie rock music will recognize North Carolina’s James Sardone as the guitarist of Brickbat, the Wilmington-originating noise rock band that released three records in the 1990s and toured with the likes of Jawbox and The Jesus Lizard. Sardone’s music has certainly evolved since those days, as evidenced by the latest release under his own name, Colors. The five-song EP runs over half an hour in length, although half of that is devoted to a dancefloor-friendly remix of opening track “Colors of Your Brain” and its truncated “radio edit”, meaning that there’s about fifteen minutes and three songs of “new” music, one of which is a cover song. That said, Sardone offers up plenty to enjoy in these three tracks.
Opening track “Colors of Your Brain” is vintage new wave/college rock at its best, with Sardone’s clear vocals leading an instrumental brimming with New Order-esque bass melodies and swooning synths. It’s a sharp pop song that is too strongly-written to fall victim to any sort of mindless retro fetishism, and while follow-up track “Life of Love” isn’t as immediate, it’s arguably even more sonically interesting. Its post-punk influences lurk a bit more under the surface as it adopts a tougher alt-rock posture (even as its lyrics are aggressively optimistic) and even throws in a surprisingly heavy guitar solo. Sardone then pulls into the EP’s centerpiece–a six-and-a-half minute version of Blondie’s “Dreaming”, slowing down the original’s giddy new wave into a slow, deliberate but still starry-eyed synthpop ballad. Sardone incorporates it into Colors’ light-seeming but deep sound effortlessly. (Bandcamp link)
