Just over two years after their sublime Slow Decline of an Evening Herald debut album should have wiggled the beauty receptors of way more people, the Portland four piece that are Airport are back to provide yet more 'stunning'.
Simultaneously difficult to place yet endearingly familiar, this albums sees a continuation of the bands usage of the two primary aesthetics that were seen on the debut. Initially there is still the beautiful female croon of Rachel Zakrasek that conditions the longer tracks such as Line By Line (see below), I Disappear and Eagle Cases with a sense of sultry beauty that reminds me of an indie-pop version of Cat Power. It is all slightly illegible breathless sensuality which is accentuated by the slightly hazy surf pop riffs that are wrapped around the laconic core.
However, it is in the adoption of the second musical stylistic that the album truly excels. Here the sultry haze of the longer tracks are consumed by a more clear precise indie-pop sound enabling the jangle-pop to start to breathe. Tracks such as Sober, the album's lead single Go On, Andi, Chasing and the true stand out of the album in Candy Cane (see below) adds a sparsity and transparency to both the Camera Obscura style Tracyanne Campbell vocal stylistics and the thin almost tinny, yet gloriously jangled riffs, to produce a sound that is as enchanting as it is exclusively Airport.
It could be that after two albums with the same beautiful aesthetic that Airport may decide they need a somewhat different direction n future releases? However with a current sound that incorporates elements of indie-pop, jangle-pop and dream-pop in it's beautiful whole, I hope they stifle the temptation for a while longer and consider the sum of the parts as enough.
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