Albums by this artist

Kind Of Light (2002)

The 88

Kind Of Light

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» JEREMY HORELICK | STAFF WRITER

The 88 Kind Of Light EMK/Mootron, 2002 RiYL: Fiction Plane, The Kinks, Fountains Of Wayne

Los Angeles' newest power-pop darlings, The 88, have a jones for the sorts of toys you’d find in a grade-school music class. Their debut album, Kind Of Light, is choc-a-bloc with shakeable joy such as maracas and yuletide tambourines that, ironically, come together in 13 unshakeable tracks. Don’t expect to purge Kind Of Light from your head anytime soon -- this is pure musical soma, with the relentlessness of some lab-cooked supercharged rhinovirus.

For all their rhythm, The 88 are a distinctly melodic band. Lead singer Keith Slettedahl, who navigates that whispery way-station between octaves on tracks like "Elbow Blues" and "How Good It Can Be," invites constant comparisons to The Kinks’ Ray Davies, and sometimes even John Lennon. Multi-instrumentalist Brandon Jay flashes mean slide-guitar chops and adds reeling countermelodies on the woozy "Afterlife," while keyboardist and producer Adam Merrin lends blues piano to "I’m A Man" and joins Jay and Slettedahl for three-part harmonies on the album’s opener "All The Same."

The entire troupe sings, including bassist Carlos Torres and drummer Mark Vasapolli, who not only anchor the lilting melodies with their signature breaks and growling bass runs, but do double duty with backing vocals of their own on the fitful "Sunday Afternoon," an amped-up anthem to a pill- and God-inspired weekend.

Together, The 88 are a rare reminder of what a band can achieve when its members don’t simply cart their talents off to distant reaches of the musical map, but instead tune in to listen to each other play. Amid a pop music landscape bleaker than a Nine Inch Nails video backdrop, The 88 are the kind of light that music-fan refugees from the Clear Channel coup have come to crave.

JEREMY HORELICK |