Triptides "Azur"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

Indiana's Triptides have finally washed up in Los Angeles, a much more suitable home away from home for their appealling, bite sized snacks of hazy summer psychedelia.

The move seems to have helped them shed the last vestiges of their vintage jangle, replacing it with a much more contemporary sheen, which sees them pawning their Byrdsy tendencies in favour of a much shinier, post-eighties jangle influence.

Perhaps it's just me, but I've found that it's almost impossible to listen to "Azur" without visualising one of those really colourful multicoloured plastic beach balls. Go and try now. You're back? Hard, wasn't it? 

"Azur", simply put, sounds like Real Estate's "Days" draped over a deck chair with a margherita, which is extremely welcome as we're smack bang in the middle of one of the chilliest cold spells I can remember over here in the New Zealand Winter. Given that this hardly constitutes the ideal listening conditions for this album, I'm a little concerned about how obssesed I'd have become with "Azur" had I been exposed to it in our Summer.

There's not a lot more to be said. Short, sharp and irresistable, there's plenty within these songs to keep vintage pop addicts, and scenesters alike happy. The always reliable team at Norman Records sum it up perfectly: "an utterly perfect amalgam of ‘60s beat pop (The Hollies!) with those moments when Deerhunter decide they are going to be a pop combo."

I can't top that. The perfect Summer record.

Available here (UK/EU), or here (US).