Summer Sun
Any album withSummer Sunas its title and "Beach Party Tonight" as the opening track has to be the soundtrack of tanned flesh, cold beer, and killer waves, right? Not if it’s the product of three New Jersey bohos who know, from personal experience or their record collections, that summer is also the place to find surfers afraid of the water and sun-poisoned girls afraid of going home alone, again.  Although not quite as cohesive or instantly captivating as the band’s 2000 breakthrough,And  Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out,Summer Sunis crafted from a similar hushed and hypnotic mold. Most of the 13 songs are built on a simple foundation of lo-fi guitar, bass, and brushed drums, then finished off with swirling horns, insistent piano figures, or organ. Especially good are thePet Sounds-like pocket symphony "Tiny Birds," the beat-groove-powered "Moonrock Mambo," and the album-closing cover ofBig Star’s "Take Care." This last song is re-imagined as a country lament with pleading pedal-steel guitar and singer Georgia Hubley sounding likeNicofronting a lounge band on the boardwalk of a beach town headed toward post-Labor Day oblivion. Ah, summer.--Keith Moerer