It's Friday and I'm away for the weekend (again!), what better to bring in the last few hours of work before heading up to Manchester than some sweet, sweet indie/surf pop from LA, Hills are a new, young four-piece who according to their own bio 'spent one summer writing songs at a beach house in California', the results are well worth your investigation for their debut self-titled LP (available for FREE via bandcamp) is a beautiful, I-wish-it-still-sunny listen....
Sure, sun-kissed dream-pop is a saturated market at the moment and there's a lot akin to the likes of Tennis or Seapony here but this debut doesn't aim to reinvent the genre, it offers nine simple, breezy numbers that let you drift off to a much simpler, lighter world, full of warm romanticism and endearing nostalgia without a worry in the world
Highlights are aplenty but "Let's Swim" has the sort of melody that you want to hear over and over again, with sweet and endearing jangle guitars and restrained percussion while similarly instant is the beautiful "It's Okay", a pure toe-tapper with vocalist Alisa Cacho-Sousa's soft purr taking you straight to dreamland around catchy keys and guitar shimmers. Luscious and bright old school pop textures that can do nothing but raise a smile and mood.
Elsewhere "With You" is all catchy guitar riffs and tender vocals while "Take You There" has chunky, fuzzed-up guitars and rat-a-tat drums that change things up a bit, their added grit is welcome and perhaps another 'meatier' track in the album would have add some more bite to the release but saying that, the slow-tempo "Back Again", probably the most melancholic moment on the record is also one of the loveliest.
A lovely, blissful debut that you'd be a fool not to pick it up on, especially for free. Let's hope Hills head off for another summer trip away next year, though remember to support any future release, bands aren't making much of a living on 'free'.
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