Beat Mark are a new French band who offer up a wonderful slice of scrappy, catchy pop on their debut album, making a tuneful racket that blends garage-grown organ fuzz and drum stomp with a jangle-heavy wall-of-guitar sound and lovely male/female vocal harmonies. They take the anything-goes dilettante approach of bands like Swell Maps or Pastels, and fuse it to a sharp mastery of pop song craft; their songs sound loose and tattered on the surface, but underneath is a sweet, hook-filled center that puts them in the same camp as anything from the Captured Tracks or Slumberland stables. Their fusion of British beat with California sunshine takes a left turn somewhere; everything comes together beautifully, but something just seems slightly off in the best possible way, with Beach Boys-style harmonies straining to rise above the thick clouds of massive guitar distortion. It's tough to put a fresh face on a well-explored sound, but this young band pulls it off quite admirably with nonchalant energy and an eager sense of exploration that has them trying on different tempos and arrangement strategies with ease. I expect we'll start seeing and hearing more from this group in the coming months; these kids are sitting high on my list of favorite new pop bands, and fans of recent platters by DIIV, Allah-Lahs, and Ty Segall will most likely also appreciate the ragged sunshine conjured here.
- Mikey IQ Jones
"What I Want the Most"
"Am I Five"
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