Oh! Custer

"States" CDR

Series Two Records

Genre: dream pop, indie pop, lo-fi

Malmo, Sweden / Oslo, Norway

May 8, 2009

There are hordes of lo-fi pop bands out there churning out chiming, C-86-influenced dream-pop, yet few produce songs as endearingly infectious as Sweden's Oh! Custer. States, an album comprised of two EPs, is a flatly excellent pop release, as well as the first record put out by what has become the now-prolific Series Two label.

Awash in some joyfully overt shoegazer influences, the band weds anthemically jangling guitars with memorable vocal melodies. The first EP (States proper) is the more polished of the two, with several immensely listenable nuggets. The real fun is had when the reverb is turned up, as on “Post” and “So Much Better.” The second EP, Leaves, is considerably more lo-fi, although the brilliant melodies still glisten; “Spoiler,” the prime example, is delicious, reverberating bliss. Not every song hits all the right notes, particularly near the record's end (questionable drum machinery on “Late,” disorganized song structure on “Fields of Autumn”); however, the overall impression is largely positive. It must be conceded that Oh! Custer's songs sound more similar to one another that might be predicted, but this cohesion only leads to a consistently glorious album. So far, this is the best I've heard from Series Two Records.

oh! custer's myspace

84%

Michael Tau

[Vitals: 11 tracks, 200 copies, distributed by the label, released July 3, 2007]