Headlights Love Wildlife

Headlights are a truly magical band and their last two albums,Kill Them With Kindness and Some Racing, Some Stoppingwere two of the best indie pop albums of the last five years. The band's jaunty indie pop has hit on all cylinders since their debut and the band's growing pop prowess is absolutely brilliant. It should really come as no surprise, then, that their latest studio album, Wildlife is far from a let down.

Wildlife picks up where the pop perfection of Some Racing, Some Stoppingleft off and further develops their sound into something far richer and mature. With a distinct 60's feel that's run through a Stereolab filter, Wildlifeis pretty close to being a modern proggy chamber pop masterpiece. The album, and band for that matter, is a fairly twee affair and sounds like Rilo Kiley mixed with Ladybug Transistor or even a bit of Beulah for good measure and of course the aforementioned Stereolab. It's almost as if Headlights rolled up the gentler side of the Elephant Six collective and stuffed them all in a room with Moogs and guitars and forced them to record this album.

Whatever method they used, Headlights have come up with an album that's soft and cuddly and really really quite good; the sort of thing that wants to give you a bear hug, pick you up off the ground and give you a spin. This is a record that shimmers with joyous riff after joyous riff and is so bubbly it can barely contain itself. Songs chime in quietly and linger in your head as all sorts of gleeful sounds roll along in the background and boy/girl vocals cast their sugary sweet spell. There aren't many records like Wildlife around, simply because this is the sort of thing that is guaranteed to put a smile on your face no matter what your mood. .

This is music for shiny happy people and with songs as bouncy and delectable as, "Telephones," and "Slow Down Town," it's easy to see why this band is so good. Headlights' skill at creating enticing pop is second to none and without a single duff tune on Wildlife this album has to be one of the best indie pop albums you are likely to hear in 2009. Headlights maturity and songwriting skills are evident everywhere on Wildlife and for a band who have only put out two albums, one EP, and a remix album they are a group clearly far beyond their years when it comes to making brilliant pop music.