Blog: The Needle Drop

Portland's Au--just pronounce it "eh, you"--is another band getting in line to redefine what it is to play pop music and record it yourself. There are elements of Mount Eerie, Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, and the Ruby Suns strewn about in Au's recordings: grandiose group vocals, room ambiance, distant drums, and some well-executed crescendos. Despite all of these prevalent fringe elements, Luke Wyland--Au's founder and mastermind--still manages to make the music plenty catchy. These two tracks come from Au's latest album, Verbs , and they're a great example of the band's structural dynamics [...]

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