In 2010, the scrappy Chino punks in Abe Vigoda shared a producer with Seaside Home, tour dates with Vampire Weekend, and a cinematic ’80s revivalism with the yr’s buzziest bands. With its hyperkinetic “tropical punk” draped in Fairly in Pink pastels, Crush was probably the most commercially interesting album to emerge from Los Angeles DIY venue the Scent and, subsequently, the most important problem to its egalitarian philosophy. However whether or not Abe Vigoda have been really going for the gold was a moot level: They quietly disbanded a yr later and Crush remained a hidden gem that gave the impression of nothing else. At the very least till now, as Michael Vidal and Juan Velasquez reunite as Cupid & Psyche on the alluring Romantic Music, sounding like “the subsequent Abe Vigoda album” however with a sober, measured perspective that required one other decade to entry.
Whereas Vidal and Velasquez are nonetheless mining the extra populist sounds of Thatcher-era post-punk, Romantic Music isn’t going to be confused for “sophisti-pop.” The duo’s musical complexity feels born extra of instinct than finicky craft, one sighing guitar line weaving into one other, leaving simply sufficient area for Vidal’s unorthodox, diffuse vocal melodies to braid by way of. Except the engrossing refrain of lead single “Angels on the Cellphone,” the hooks don’t arrive by way of seismic dynamics or a belted melody, however relatively slight nudges that elevate the curtain on the uniformly dusky temper; witness the piquant chord modifications in “Nervousness’s Rainbow,” or a slight shuffle within the rhythms of “Datura Sketch.” Romantic Music is at its finest when its core sound inches into the ’90s and decks itself out in greyscale paisley, as if the Remedy revisited their Religion-era gloom whereas making an attempt to reckon with the melon-twisting rhythms of Madchester.
The reliance on drum machines lends Romantic Music a extra era-specific sound than Crush, although additionally one which’s much less distinctive. Whether or not it’s the character of the mission as a pandemic-born jam session or the simply the inevitable results of beginning over with no rhythm part, Romantic Music lacks the feverish momentum of infatuation or devastation, too usually locked right into a muted, slim vary of timbre and tempo.
