Gordon Zacharias spent some time in
the Essex Green and with
Joe Pernice (
Big Tobacco) following his limited-edition EP under the name
Fan Modine, and those are useful touchstones for the delicate (but never merely twee) indie pop sound of his one-man band's full-length debut. There are strings on various songs here, and gently brushed drums, and vintage synthesizers, and energetically strummed acoustic guitars, and artless boy-next-door vocals. What makes
Homeland special is
Zacharias' undeniable skill as both an arranger (all those musical elements combine into distinctive, richly satisfying wholes) and a songwriter. Songs as complex as the
Richard Davies-like chamber pop of "Pageantry" and as simple as the gently electronic "Gulls by the Sea" (which has more of a
Badly Drawn Boy meets
Mull Historical Society feel) are equally charming and skilled, and the ten songs form an impressively unified yet varied debut that bodes well for
Zacharias' next offering as well. Fans of
Belle & Sebastian,
the Decemberists, or
Magnetic Fields, meet your new favorite band.