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In the City
Album Review
First dates are the worst. You think too much, you're on your best behavior (i.e. the behavior you're never on otherwise) and there's too many opportunities for the worst kind of surprises to hit you in the stomach like a slip of the "I actually hate dogs" or "I have a huge Star Wars toys collection." First dates are also the best: sometimes those tentative first steps toward romance are the most endearing. Luckily, Peel fits neatly into the second category on their debut date with the listening public. What sounds like an awkward commingling of keyboard and guitar, for instance, eventually reveals that opposites do attract on opener "Oxford," while "Bells" smothers everything (even Josh Permenter's vocals) in a haze of badly recorded urgent indie-rock.
The classic Pavement skronk meets Roxy Music keyboard that obscures many of the tracks here actually works to the band's advantage. When Permenter is relatively intelligible ("Sliding Doors," "1949"), you may find yourself hoping for another wash of good ol' fashioned noise to drown him out. But that's what first dates are all about — weighing the pros and the cons and establishing that ineffable connection with someone. And while Peel isn't quite love at first sight, if they've got more quirky indie pop in them like "In the City" and "Someone's Cousin," we'll be lining up for a second date.
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