Motopony’s debut is all over the place, darting back and forth between danceable electro-pop, indie folk, and country-rock over the course of 40 minutes. The one constant is the eccentricity that imbues every song: the high, warbling vocals that sound like a Theremin in “Vetiver,” an otherwise straightforward Baroque ballad; the way the bass takes the spotlight on “I Am My Body,” evoking
Creedence Clearwater Revival with a bit more R&B influence; the way a ‘70s soul song like “Seer” follows two laid-back indie pop numbers in the track list. The whole thing feels like a hipster’s musical grab bag, filled to the brim with street-smart, polyrhythmic songs that are as weird as they are melodic. But the album begins to reveal its true charm after repeated listens, once these songs have had the chance to settle themselves into the listener’s head. “Wait for Me” is slyly gorgeous, with synths and female harmonies adding some decoration to a straightforward acoustic guitar progression, and “King of Diamonds” sounds like laid-back, latter-day
Radiohead, with an honest-to-god melody instead of
Thom Yorke’s ambient wailing. This is an album for lazy summer days and hazy summer nights, with enough tricks up its sleeve to appeal to pretty much anybody with an appetite for electronics and guitars. ~ Andrew Leahey