It Hugs You Back Is Inside Your Guitar

Do you miss the days when bands like the Boo Radleys, Stereolab, and Yo La Tengo were the dominant indie bands? I know I do, I miss the days of shoegazing, loopy pop, and krautrock influenced jam sessions. The heady days of 1992-95 were fantastic years for indie and I for one love the fact that I got to witness it all. The guys from It Hugs Back must love that time period as well because their album Inside Your Guitar is a retro-influenced lazy pop record that shimmers in the sunshine.

With dreamy songs wafting in the breeze much of Inside Your Guitar has a barely there feel. It's a delicate but gorgeous record that's stirring, breezy, and unhindered by the world around it. It Hugs You Back have embraced their influences and manipulated them to sound as if they were all their own. They do such a good job at sounding like the Boo Radleys or Yo La Tengo at times that you can't help but wonder if a few of them are in the band.

Utilizing organs, guitars, whispered vocals, and what would sound like piles and piles of effect pedals, It Hugs You back are able to do all this. They create a hazy, lazy wall of sound that's as comforting as it is catchy. Inside Your Guitar truly benefits from the bands understanding not only of how be creative with sound and processing it but also being able to write a lethargically brilliant pop song.

Inside Your Guitar is a slacker classic. It's a record that's truly unconcerned with anything but adorable littl pop songs. It Hugs Back have tapped into their inner shoegazer and come up with a record that is clearly from a different time. If Inside Your Guitar had been released in 1992 or 93 I have no doubt It Hugs Back would have been one of the biggest bands in Britain. But alas they are stranded here in the age of dayglo and skinny jeans, for that reason alone you should give them a hug and then go out and purchase the best gazing album of 2009!