Albums by this artist

Her Wallpaper Reverie (1999)

The Apples In Stereo

Her Wallpaper Reverie

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» DEVON REED | STAFF WRITER

The Apples In Stereo Her Wallpaper Reverie spinART, 1999 RiYL: Elf Power, The Beatles, Beach Boys, Olivia Tremor Control

The Apples in Stereo are a strange bunch. When listening to any of their albums, one gets the feeling that these are people who spent a little too much time locked in their room as children, alone with their Beatles and Beach Boys record collections. And nowhere has their obsession with all things '60s and psychedelic been more apparent than on the album Her Wallpaper Reverie.

With 15 tracks laid out over a scant 27 minutes, Her Wallpaper Reverie is a collection of songs (seven, to be exact), toy piano melodies, sound effects, and generally drugged out aural odysseys. Sound good? It gets better.

The Apples spend "side one" outlining all of their various influences on songs like "The Shiney Sea," "Ruby," and "Strawberryfire." The latter, a tune straight out of Sgt. Pepper's-era Beatles, will make you swear you've become a passenger on the Yellow Submarine. These are great tunes, equal in every way to their '60s counterparts, but no band can rest on such derivativeness, and thus is the brilliance of "side two."

Over the latter half of the album, the Apples both build upon and deconstruct their various idols, proving themselves once and for all to be more than the sum of these preoccupations. Two songs especially, "Questions And Answers" and "Benefits Of Lying (With Your Friend)," are nothing short of perfect pop gems.

This is sweet, winsome pop which doesn't succumb to a trace of self-importance. Her Wallpaper Reverie isn't a masterpiece, it's too short and idiosyncratic for that. It is, however, a complete and total success on every term which the Apples In Stereo have laid out for themselves.

DEVON REED |