“I am still having to check those liner notes to ensure that, yes, there are only two people at the helm” Album Review: Oppenheimer - Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer are two guys that know their way around a pop hook. Formed during the rainy Irish winter of 2004, their debut album is full of lush, sunny blip-pop that oughta be mentioned in the same breath as groups like Meho Plaza and The Postal Service. Their 35 minute record is layered so well, I’m still having to check those liner notes to ensure that, yes, there are only two people at the helm.

Rocky & Shaun’s use of kitchen sink keyboard skills, (not to mention enough vocoder to make Air consider packing it in), make already-good melodies seem even dreamier than they could have been on simple orgainc instruments. I’m a bit curious as to how they are pulling it off live, but from all accounts, they’re a sight to behold in concert. And to be honest, after a few spins of this record, I wanna go check it out.

In short, the songs are infectious as all hell.

Out of the fourteen enclosed tracks, major standouts include the summery “Ok, Let’s Take This Outside”, an understated “Orchid” that eventually builds to dance party proportions and “Breakfast In NYC”, featuring most of the last great pop melodies that hadn’t yet been written. The songs are mostly upbeat and always interesting… plus they’re among the bands realizing that the shorter your albums running length is, the more impact your statements are gonna make.

But, wait… does Oppenheimer have a specific statement to make? Some indisputable nugget of knowledge to drop on us? Seemingly no, and it doesn’t matter. Their aim is to make summer-pop anthems, and they’ve succeeded in spades. One cohesive record chock full o’ goodwill that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Oppenheimer - Breakfast In NYC.mp3
Oppenheimer’s MySpace page!

© RetroLowFi 2006