The Chicago bliss-pop project Houses came together quickly. A recently published article in the Chicago Reader fleshes out the story: The 24-year-old leader Dexter Tortoriello spent time in Hawaii with partner Megan Messina earlier this year, made some field recordings, and created a song called "Endless Spring" once back in Chicago. The remainder of the group's debut album, All Night, was written in a nearly one-week stint after being signed to Lefse. Houses' first live performances were at CMJ last month, and as of the time of the interview for the Reader piece, they still hadn't practiced for the first time.
So it seems safe to assume that Houses may not have been a labor-intensive project, which comes across on the record. Although All Night possesses a pleasant enough downtempo glow, provided mostly by Dexter's murmured, multi-tracked, low-register vocals, the record also sounds largely rushed and unfinished. Save for its early leaks, the upbeat (and identical-sounding) "Reds" and "Soak It Up", the majority of these songs sound like sketches for something larger or at least something more complete. Many melodies trail off or peter out early into washy textures, as if Dexter's laptop had run out of juice before he got a chance to add another preset. When the songs end, it's easy to forget them.
There are a few moments where the lack of structure works to Houses' benefit, like on the cinematic, evocative closer "Sun Fills", or the phased-out trails of "Rose Book". But even the most sonically involved moments are cheapened by an ill-advised tactic of the duo's own design. During the mixing process, there were crackles and warbles and, in Houses' words, "imperfections" added to All Night in order to give the listener the feeling of listening to the record on vinyl. If you've spent part of 2010 smacking your forehead at the millennial generation's obsession with nostalgia, feel free to roll your eyes. If you're just someone wondering why this record sounds like it could use more craft, well, there's one possible answer.
