The fifth High Llamas record, SNOWBUG, continues main-man Sean O'Hagan's fascination with--and focus on--highly orchestrated, intricately detailed, and spectacularly clean '60s-revisionist pop music. Polished to a shiny gleam, each track reflects brightly, suggesting everything good that you remember from the summers of your childhood. This record, as with most Llamas records, features assistance from various members of Stereolab, and this one additionally features a number of Chicago's finest--the infamous Sea & Cake and Tortoise nexus--involved mainly from the production side.
The most successful tracks are the loosest-feeling ones, the understated, xylophone-driven instrumental, "Hoops Holiday"; the percolating "The American Scene"; and "Amin," which opens with a deceptively free-form jam. "Cookie Bay" is a bright, busy track that sounds a bit like a dizzy mixture Saint Etienne, Hello Kitty, and really fizzy fruit punch. Oddly enough, the less-than-a-minute "Dalton's Star" is one of the standouts, featuring a dense mixture of roller-rink keyboards, horns, and wiggly wristed cowbell (?) percussion. And if "Cut the Green Coaster" doesn't make you smile, well, maybe you ought to see a doctor. SNOWBUG makes a good introduction to O'Hagan's work with the Llamas, and will undoubtedly set you off running to the store to buy more.