Portland, Oregon six piece Alan Singley and Pants Machine are a beguiling bunch. Led by 27-year-old Burt Bacharach aficionado Alan Singly, the band take the indie rock template and turn it upside down and then don it with martinis and velvet smoking jackets. Singley who wrote and actually arranged all twelve songs on their latest album, Feelin' Citrus, has taken that swinging sound made famous by Mr. Bacharach and molded it into something they can call their very own. It's hip, it's cool, and it's as laid back a swinging bachelor pad.
Feelin' Citrus isn't your typical indie rock album. Sure the vocals are kind of strained in that I can't really sing but I'm singing sort of style, but the actual music sounds as if it were the greatest collision, between Burt's piano and 60's AM Radio, ever. It's light, airy, jangly, and totally cool man. It's not the most obtrusive stuff you're likely to hear and in fact, with the exception, "Le Rain," much of the album plays out like the sound track to some sort of Doris Day kind of movie.
Alan Singley and Pants Machine have come up with a really fun record that's not necessarily the best thing you're going to hear this year, but it is one of the quirkiest and poptastic. Loaded with enough horns to keep a trumpet factory busy for years and with so many overjoyed choruses it will make you blush the record is a sugary pop rush that spreads it's happiness in a most infectious manner. From the twangy guitar of "Today Is A Postcard," to the sweeping easy listening of, "Rice Pudding," Alan Singley and Pants Machine has come up with the perfect hipster cocktail party soundtrack with Feelin' Citrus. The bands modern twist on a classic sound is refreshing and it helps put Feelin' Citrus in a league of it's own.
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