** The High Llamas
BUZZLE BEE
(Drag City)
High Llama leader Sean O’Hagan wouldn’t consider it an insult to be tagged
the Burt Bacharach of indie pop. The former creative force behind Microdisney,
O’Hagan has become a specialist in ornate orchestral pop that brings to mind
Bacharach’s mid-1960s zenith. His retro-futurist clients have included
Stereolab and Saint Etienne, but it’s with his own acclaimed foursome, the
High Llamas, that he’s most active. In addition to betraying a Bacharach
fetish, the Llamas’ music unabashedly simulates the harmonic opulence of
the Beach Boys, the quiet sophistication of Brazilian bossa, and the perverse
hybridity of Serge Gainsbourg. You could call it “complicated easy listening.”
Compared with its opulent antecedents, the cutely named Buzzle Bee
is a minimalist affair. Although the arrangements are no less studied, the
German dubtronica that sparkled through Cold and Bouncyýis largely
absent, as are the horn charts of previous ventures. Instead, the downsized
sound favors Partridge Family–style backing vocals, organ, insistent tambourine,
and recurrent rhythmic motifs (especially on “Bobby’s Court”). “New Broadway”
adds some cocktail ska to the mix. O’Hagan’s thin vocals, which recall XTC’s
reedy Andy Partridge, are a distraction, but Stereolabster Mary Hanson brightens
the proceedings with her appropriately demure voice. The result’s a non-threatening
delight for orch-pop fetishists, but the High Llamas might benefit if O’Hagan could
break even freer from his air-tight ćsthetic.
— Patrick Bryant
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