The Lil' Hospital
"I Wanna Be Well"
CDR
Best
Friends Records
Genres: twee, indie pop, lo-fi
Best Friends
PO Box 48214
Denver CO 80204
Oct 11 - 17 2004 |
You can't not like a band like The Lil' Hospital. Their
music is so fun, innocent, and earnestly catchy that you cannot be
bothered to despise them. Principal songwriter and performer Kevin
is the perfect suspect to be writing simple, guitar-and-vocal-led tunes that fall under
the twee/lo-fi banner. If you like HHBTM, Popgun (whose
"owner", Raoul, contributes trumpet to this disc),
and Bumblebear releases, you'll feel right at home listening to I
Wanna Be Well. The best part of this Best Friends release is that
it simply revels in its own positive optimism. It is as good as any twee
record, filled
with brief, unassuming pop songs heavy on hooks and short on
elaboration. "Kampus & Katy" is about as complex
as things get on I Wanna Be Well; trumpets are added to a
twinkly, home-brewed guitar pop tune (think Elf Power or Of
Montreal, but with lower production values), and the results are
predictably excellent. The song is very lo-fi (gotta love the drum
machine), but that's part of the charm. All of the disc's tracks
follow
the same general formula (give or take occasional bells or
tambourines), but their brevity keeps things from becoming bland or
obnoxious. Album highlights include nerd-pop nugget
"Muscle," bedroom rocker "Oh My Days," and the
utterly infectious "Casios Know."
Chalk it up - Best Friends has scored another hit. I Wanna
Be Well may not be one of their most elaborate successes, but it's
still an incredibly fun album. At the very least, it's nice to
know the lo-fi indie pop dynasty is in good hands.
85%
Matt Shimmer [Vitals:
11 tracks, distributed by the
label, released 2004] |
