Just in case you miss any of the auditory clues-- the plucked sting melodies, puerile rubber ducky background squeaks, Galia Durant's lulling syncopated vocals-- Psapp offer verbal clarification that they are, in fact, dream pop: "Only when I'm sleeping do I see," sings Durant on "Rear Moth", from the band's new album Tiger, My Friend. But this isn't your ordinary MBV knock-off; the London-based duo fall into a glitchier category, fitting naturally and notably alongside bands like Lali Puna, Ms. John Soda, and a less sentimental Postal Service.
While many recent albums in its vein have thrived on maudlin excess (The Postal Service's Give Up, Notwist's Neon Golden) or facile Portishead impersonations (Beth Orton's Daybreaker), Tiger, My Friend is much frillier. Psapp tread lightly, exploring instrumentation and rhythm with a touching, childlike curiosity. Their songs don't bear much weight, musically or lyrically, and that's part of what makes them so appealing.
Psapp knock out intricate songs in odd meters with impressive dexterity. Frail strings, trebly pianos, and glockenspiels mingle quietly and expressively beneath Durant's breathy vocals. It's difficult enough to arrange such fickle instruments in straight time, but Psapp tackle daunting rhythmic blueprints without flinching. Most of the time it works. "Chapter" and the title track feature cascading polyrhythmic melodies while "Rear Moth" stomps out a jaunty 5/4.
Of course, with music this purposefully airy, Psapp suffer from a certain amount of preciousness. But even Tiger, My Friend's most saccharine numbers are delivered cautiously. "Curuncula"-- with its wistful guitar loop, click-clack beat, and faint sustained organ-- strikes the best balance: Durant levels the song's rhythmic pep with her demure vocal delivery and a chorus of, "We have only ourselves/ Only ourselves to blame."
Though Psapp are sure to draw comparisons to Múm for their use of music box and glockenspiel, the songs on which the twinkling instruments feature most prominently are actually the album's darkest. "Calm Down" has a chilly opening hook and whooshing, glacial background textures. The following track, "Velvet Pong", with similar instrumentation and an almost identical melody, is sequenced perfectly; Durant stands out during the song's chorus, singing in a hazy, coquettish croon that recalls Cocorosie's Cassidy sisters.
Tiger, My Friend is surprisingly coherent for a debut album. Compared to Ben Gibbard's in-your-face emotionality or Ms. John Soda's blissed-out urbanity, Psapp are refreshingly restrained, and the result is greater consistency. Sure, greater dynamic variety and some selective risktaking would be nice, but these precocious upstarts already got the tough part pinned down: subtlety. Psapp have laid themselves a remarkably self-assured template for subsequent outings.
