One Track Mind

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I’m just gonna lay all the cards on the table: The Beta Band, Beck, The Pixies–you’ll hear them all, and with quite a bit of clarity, on this track from Pablo‘s forthcoming sophomore LP (to be released on November 3rd). Whether that is a good thing or not depends not on whether you like these acts (you’d fucking better, okay?) but rather whether you can find love in homage. Paul Schalda works some vocal gymnastics on this song to earn those comparisons –can that really be him channeling Mssrs. Black and Hansen?–and “Hey Luci” is packed with frantically strummed acoustic guitars and dexterous drumming.

Just as The Dodos are able to squeeze a lot of might out of two dudes and a couple of instruments, there is a superficial simplicity to “Hey Luci” which serves as part of its charm. It’s easy to trace the song’s roots as an eight-track home recording, but the improvements lavished by bringing different contributors into the fold are equally evident. It is taut enough to power forward on its own momentum and its musical ideas are developed just enough so that the sound is full without being needlessy complicated. Homage or not, there is an incontrovertible vitality to “Hey Luci” that proves Pablo knows how to turn out a crafty little rocker.