For Koko Beware, minimalism is the name of the game. The local four-piece (recently relocated from Augusta) heartily embraces a no-frills approach to its music—an artful blend of flighty, innocuous surf-pop and suggestive garage-rock that surpasses expectations of what that combination might entail.
The appropriately concise (clocking in at 28 minutes) Something About the Summer is, indeed, a warm-weather record, a lazy, heat-laden missive full of youthful debauchery and slow, slithery bass-heavy grooves. Familiar references abound: “I Want To” calls to mind the more rockabilly-ish moments of punk titans X; “Pretty Girls” sounds like The Black Lips as fronted by Fred Schneider; “Stay” is all fractured-Spector doo-wop and romantic misadventure.
The only major drawback to Something About the Summer is the production, which is technically fine but also comes off rather inert; it tends to render the record somewhat lifeless. Koko Beware’s purposefully blasé style is a huge part of its charm but would be endlessly more effective if countered by a sharper, edgier recording. Still, as far as content, Summer is a winner.
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