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Jan 30, 2013 Issue #44 - Best of 2012 - Grimes By Hays Davis

If The House at Sea plays like the soundtrack of a breezy holiday on the continent, it’s with good reason. Alasdair MacLean of The Clientele and Lupe Nez-Fernandez of Pipas, working as Amor de Días, created the album over the course of three years between Spain and the U.K.

Recorded with local musicians, visiting friends, and an obvious lack of deadline pressure, the material here is as comfortable as breakfast on the veranda in your bathrobe. Flamenco accents and a bossa nova heart lift “Voice in the Rose,” with “In the Winter Sun” following similarly, though with a bit more spring in its step. But it’s not all exotically stamped postcards; the duo recalls light ‘60s pop on such tracks as “Jean’s Waving” and cranks the electric instruments up to roughly six for “Viento del Mar.”

A cursory spin might lead to the album being summed up as a pleasant trifle, but a more meaningful connection can be had at only a fraction of its three-year construction time.

(www.amordedias.com)

Author rating: 6.5/10