Her Wallpaper Reverie is
the Apples in Stereo's finest effort to date -- the band's most overtly psychedelic record, it's also their most experimental, achieving a near-perfect balance between candy-colored popcraft and musique concrète-influenced interludes. In a sense, the disc is a response to the grand ambitions of fellow Elephant 6-ers
Olivia Tremor Control and their likeminded
Black Foliage album, but
the Apples' integration of
Beatlesque melodies and experimental noises is much more seamless; not only are
Her Wallpaper Reverie's songs the best
Robert Schneider's yet written, but they're produced with a new richness of detail -- from the wonderfully
Lennon-esque "Strawberryfire" to the
Kinks-ish "Ruby," the music positively shimmers.