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Prints 
Prints
[Temporary Residence; 2007]
Rating: 7.0
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If the paisley pattern on the cover of Prints' self-titled debut is an indication of their moniker's meaning then it functions as an insight into their sound as well: neatly laid reproductions of familiar patterns and schemes. Composed of multi-instrumentalists Kenseth Thibideau (who has played with Pinback, among others) and Zac Nelson (who handles most of the vocals here), Prints produce intricate, full-bodied tracks that draw from psychedelia, pop, and electronica, at their best evoking the hypnotic splay of the Beta Band constrained by more traditional pop melodies.

Thibideau and Nelson make the most of Prints' eight songs, crafting slow-burn outros and shifting choruses to the margains. Nelson is a pretty good nonsense singer, which is to say many of his best moments occur when he's spouting syllabic goo, as he does during the opening moments of "Easy Magic". Like a younger, fresher Dan Bejar, Nelson scats around carefully placed piano chords and a funkily strummed guitar. These elements quietly accumulate over the proceeding four minutes, leading to a sublime finale in which a punchy sequencer provides a breeding ground for Nelson's repetitive chorus-- "Is it magic?/ If it's easy/ If it's easy".

Prints are most successful when they grab at odd styles. "Pretty Tick" is woolly and bizarre, with a droning synth and tiny acoustic guitar figures mic'd too close. The hypnotizing thump of "All We Knead"'s opening passage gives way to sighing female backup vocals and the song's title turned mantra before Nelson stumbles into marble-mouthed vacancy. There is no emotional take-home on Prints; it's all bullshit, but it's pleasantly escapist bullshit.

The duo encounters trouble only when it submits too willingly to formalist instincts: "Blue Jay" and "Too Much Water" are fairly straightforward pop tracks, but Thibideau and Nelson can't or don't deploy the precision these melodies and structures require. Of course, totally unfocused can be problematic too, as "Meditation"'s cheekily apt title does nothing to redeem its three minutes of unstructured guitar pluck and tuneless moan. This sort of tone blending has no place on an album as carefully colored and manicured as Prints.

The sputtering rhythms and pleasant electronic touches suggest Menomena, Pinback, or maybe Cornelius as contemporaries, though Prints boasts stronger ties to 60s pop forbears than those groups. They succeed most obviously when they cast aside obvious pop formats and send little phrases and gently lapping blips into orbit around their compositions. "Compositions" is an apt term, too, as Thibideau and Nelson are far better sound architects than they are pure tunesmiths, though their melodies likely keep Prints from spiraling off toward art-rock bluster. At its best, Prints is just familiar enough, a reproduction of sounds and styles lovingly recast with Thibideau and Nelson's leftfield touches.

-Andrew Gaerig, January 07, 2008

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