Oregon foursome Derby has all the right sounds on their debut album. The opening "Jet Set" is decorated with electric piano and Stereolab-like synth burbles under Nat Johnson's pleasantly weedy lead vocals (the Shins' James Mercer is a fair touchstone), "Qualities" has the kind of hard-candy guitar riffs that a generation of power pop bands have nicked off the Raspberries, "Sunk a Few" is an easygoing Kinks-style shuffle, and "One Reason" has a keyboard sound highly reminiscent of Venus and Mars-era Wings. But that takes the listener over a third of the way through This Is the New You with very little sense of this band's abilities beyond their admittedly fine record-collecting skills, and the rest of the disc is equally derivative. There are some catchy tunes to be had here, and it's always fun to play Spot the Influence, but unlike similar bands that can synthesize their influences into something more unique (again, the Shins come to mind, as does the Coral), Derby never quite manages to take that next step into creating something one would want to hear instead of their Raspberries, Kinks, and Wings records.
© Stewart Mason /TiVo