One Track Mind

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World Atlas probably wants to get all of the jokes out of the way very quickly. Yes, they’re all going to be arrested for grand theft. Yes, Stuart Murdoch called from 1996 and wants his band’s sound back. Yes, World Atlas’ music is so eerily reminiscent of old Belle & Sebastian records that they were served with a cease and desist. Still, there are worse things to be accused of than sounding like a facsimile of one of the most important acts of the past fifteen years at their peak.

This past March, the Brooklyn gals and guys who comprise World Atlas put out their first release, a self-titled EP, on Portland’s lovable Magic Marker indie-pop label (home to seriously under-appreciated releases by Kissing Book, The Manhattan Love Suicides, and The Best Friends Group). Led by vocalist Brian Groux (whose timbre has that unmistakable Murdochian lilt) and backed by the coos and claps of The Umbrella Girls, tracks like “The Winter Stories” are crammed with all of the winsome touches which made that other band impossible to resist: peppy layers of strings, buoyant piano counterpoints, guitars heavy on the treble and reverb, and even the thoughtful verve of the occasional puff on a harmonica.

The B&S rehash has been attempted many times before, to be sure, but I’m hard pressed to think of a time when it was done so masterfully. World Atlas may not write the world’s most original compositions, but I’ll be damned if they don’t make for some excellent songs filled with memorable melodies and strong production.