Album Review: Béisbol

Lo-Fi Cocaine (Bad Cop Bad Cop)

By AMANDA SCHURR

On their full-length debut, SoCal ex-pats Jeff and Ryan Burian channel their sunny home into a disc's worth of summer-ready jams. From crystalline instrumental opener "Big Folk"—what may have happened if M83 reworked the Cure's "Plainsong"—to slippery slow-jam coda "Is It Over," the Béisbol brothers keep the grooves retro and the harmonies posh. The jazzy, yacht-rocking "Disappear" and "Taking It All (Easy)" could be Steely Dan outtakes, and "Dead Beats" jitters through a Talking Heads-like verse before the balls-out chorus. Elsewhere, "That Feeling" flits along with lithe bass funk and loops, while "Nothing Strange" throws a dub-meets-MGMT house party. There's one breezy hook after another here, be it the fuzzy high of "Ecstasy," with sing-along refrain "All I wanna do is have fun with you I'll take you in my room and fall in love with you," the pure '80s synth pop of "Easier Without It" or the staccato wake-up call "Ready for Something." Ready or not, this season's soundtrack has arrived.

SEE IT: Béisbol plays a record-release show at Rontoms, 600 E. Burnside St., with Old Age, on Sunday, June 30. 8 pm. Free. 21 .

WWeek 2015

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