Daphne Loves Derby - Good Night, Witness Light

I must admit that for the last few days I've been drooling over an album by Daphne Loves Derby. It's called Good Night, Witness Light; and yes, Daphne is a powerpop band (with a Korean-American vocalist). Does listening to it makes it into some sort of a guilty pleasure? Well, if you consider listening to whiny, pre-pubescent vocals, simple music and catchy hooks as a guilty pleasure, then yes.

I have my excuses though. I think this is one sweet, catchy album with a lot of charm in it.

So, what does it sound like? Think of The Shins, Mae, with a hint of Further Seems Forever (with Chris Carraba as the vocalist) and The Beach Boys. Ok. Maybe not the Boys. What I'm trying to say is, the music sounds happy, uplifting, yet at the same time it's bittersweet. It almost feels like springtime for some of the songs, and like sitting in a train whilst facing in the opposite direction. It's fast, yet can still retain a sense of warmthness. I guess it's also partly because of the lyrics's accesibility: it's simple, and doesn't require any brain power to comprehend. The vocals are layered, the music is not complex and there are keyboards here and there, but it works well. It's simple. Even the vocals are smooth, soothing and gets straight to the point; no over the top harmonising or whining.

Starting from the first track: "Are two chords enough, Dear?" is a post-rock influenced song. You can hear the Sigur Ros sound in here. From the second song to the middle part of the album, the sound turns wintery and more relaxed. That is, until the interlude: the appropriately named Marching Band Intro. Following this is the second half of the album, a couple of acoustic tracks, a song that has a Beach Boy sound to it, and a couple of feel-good indie-rock songs that you kids love so much nowadays.

My favorite is the track "Love and Mercy"

Wake me up / It feels like I've been sleeping since New Years day, / Dreaming my life away. / Please try to understand if you think I've changed. /And all my friends they say I waste too much time staring out of windows in airplanes. / No no I won't take the aisle seat. / Just take me away with blood and bravery. / I am the ever green that breaks the storm.

Corny lyrics, but what the hell, I like the song. And the album. I don't know what the genre is though. Alt-rock, Indie rock? Ah what the hell, it doesn't matter anyway. Go buy/download this, if you're a 16 or 17 year old girl who likes to listen to Jack's Mannequin / Mae / The Shins /whatever indie-rock-alt-rock-bullshit is playing on Prambors and Myspace these days. Or if you want to take a break from all the pretentious, heavy, tough-guy music that you've been listening to for the last few years.

p.s. Password for the file is sharedmp3.net