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Buy this album right now, don’t even read this.

Ever since Viva Voce’s Get Yr Blood Sucked Out, I have felt a strange kinship with the band. Their earlier albums are very electronic, a sort of organic sounding synthesized mellow chill-out dream with occasional bursts of energy and beauty, and Get Yr Blood signaled a slow change in the band, where the electronics were being replaced by real instruments and it was all tinged with this 70’s classic rock feel while maintaining the dreaminess of their style. Does this make sense?

Rose City seems to be their “coming out” album as a band that has learned that the sound of several instruments playing together can clearly rival the tone and scope of mere electronic instrumentation. Opening track “Devotion” (the play button up there) sums this up pretty clearly, as it’s an interesting mix of shoegaze and Depeche Mode, being both cacophonous and dreamy at the same time.

“Devotion”, however, isn’t really a clear indicator of what is actually on the album itself, as it’s a bit of a change of pace for the band. It’s a marvelous song, but to listen to it and assume the rest of the album sounds the same way would be a mistake. It’s track two, “Die A Little”, that really sums up the record.

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While only a 2 minute track, “Die A Little” abides by the Viva Voce methodology of songwriting in which they sing a couple nonsensical lines and then a little accented guitar riff comes in, a sort of call-and-response between wife and husband on guitar, and this pattern can be seen repeatedly across the album. For me, it started to be something to look out for, the way that I worked my head into the album. Each guitar riff is unique and lovely in it’s own way.

It’s also necessary for me to note how uniformly good this album is. Most albums drag in the second half, or they have 6 songs out of 12 that just kind of suck, or there’s filler instrumental tracks that eventually get ignored. Rose City features only 1 unfortunate song (“Flora”, which will probably grow on me and turn into one of my favorites) among it’s 10 tracks.

This is a good “chill-out” album. It’s good for being intoxicated and feeling beautiful and happy. It’s good to lie in bed to. It’s probably good to fuck to. It’s good for just about any occasion.

Like I said, go buy this album. Rose City is the sound of a band perfecting their sound and style and loving every minute of it.