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Oct 30, 2014 Web Exclusive By Mack Hayden

The word “jangly” seems to come up more often in indie pop reviews than anywhere else, but when it comes to a band like Literature and their new album Chorus, it’s hard to think of a quicker way to sum up their sound. Take The Jam’s “A Town Called Malice,” update it for 2014, soften it up and stretch it out to 11 songs and there’s the long-form definition for Chorus’ sound.

The sort of twee pop these Philadelphians are baking up was a little more in vogue a few years ago when their immediate progenitors, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, first showed up. Like that somewhat more accomplished group, Literature built a sound on the edifice of early My Bloody Valentine EPs and NME C86 tapes. The first two tracks on this album are titled “The Girl, The Gold Watch, and Everything” and “The English Softhearts” and the record sounds just like those names suggest. Unfortunately, the third track’s name, “Blasé,” can occasionally be a useful adjective for describing this sequence of songs as well. They’re easy to classify, to drop on your “Sounds Like Sarah Records” playlist and, thus, a little derivative. But that doesn’t stop them from being a fun time. (www.slumberlandrecords.com/catalog/show/273)

Author rating: 5/10