Folk and country-influenced dream pop not at all far removed from
Lavender Diamond,
The Good Mornings is a side project from singer Carmen Paradise and multi-instrumentalist Jason Lantrip, both from the Michigan space rock outfit
Calliope. Not nearly as '60s-influenced as one might expect from the gloriously hideous op-art sleeve,
The Good Mornings is a fairly straightforward slab of bedroom indie pop featuring Paradise's sweet-toned if a touch pitch-poor vocals over a combination of acoustic guitar, pedal steel and vintage electronics, with minimal percussion and not much bottom end, either. The outstanding opener "Reflections of the Sky," a small dream pop epic that compares favorably to recent
Flaming Lips, is as good as this album gets, with the remaining ten tracks offering appealing variations on that indie psych template. Folks entering with unnaturally high expectations (or those expecting this to sound at all like
Calliope, which it really doesn't) may be disappointed by the offhand, homemade nature of
The Good Mornings, but it's a small, charming slice of indie electronic atmosphere. ~ Stewart Mason