Philadelphia-based dream pop outfit
Suburban Living return with
Almost Paradise, their sophomore LP and first for 6131 Records. An outgrowth of the bedroom project begun in Virginia Beach by bandleader
Wesley Bunch,
Suburban Living became a more collaborative affair in the City of Brotherly Love with the addition of guitarist
Chris Radwanski, bassist Peter Pantina, and drummer
Michael Cammarata. Their self-titled 2015 debut showed an affinity for pleasantly melodic, shoegazing pop with hints of downcast Twin Peaks-inspired lushness. Recorded and mixed by Jeff Zeigler (
the War on Drugs,
Kurt Vile),
Almost Paradise acts as a logical sequel, building on the band's dense guitar pop with additional synth layers and more robust production values. Their jangling, heavily chorused guitars and dreamy synth lines have a distinctly late-'80s 120 Minutes-era alt-pop flavor with shades of
the Cure and
Cocteau Twins being most apparent. Laid-back tunes like "Once/Twice," "Lovely Times," and "Jenny's Song" are pleasing in their hazy, edge-of-sleep kind of way, but for the most part,
Suburban Living don't do a whole lot to distinguish themselves from either their influences or from the various other dream pop revivalists mining this somewhat narrow gene pool.
Bunch and his bandmates have a nice ear for melodic hooks and little pop ornamentations, but so much of
Almost Paradise feels too studied and bereft of uniqueness. They've managed to capture the tone and feel of benchmark albums like
Disintegration and
Heaven or Las Vegas without really bringing any new elements to the table. It's a nicely crafted album, for sure, but one without a distinctive voice.