You Can Have What You Want (Bonus Track Version)

iTunes Review

Papercuts’ third album finds frontman Jason Quever detouring from the electro folk of 2007’s Can’t Go Back. Recalling an early ‘80s paisley underground vibe — perhaps inadvertently —– the dreamy You Can Have What You Want hovers on grinding organ, spacey reverb, tasteful strings, analogue tape hiss, and a hushed psychedelia akin to the Rain Parade’s 1983 debut. Quever inflects with an uncalculated aloofness to sing like the next of kin to Chris Gunst of Beachwood Sparks and Mystic Chords of Memory. After the lightly undulating drones of opener “Once We Walked In The Sunlight” make way for Quever’s voice, he comes in crooning with elongated vowels and a head-nodding cool that harks back to dream pop’s early ‘90s heyday. “Future Primitive” beats softly on a mellow ‘60s groove not unlike better moments by the Ladybug Transistor or the Essex Green, but without all those obvious “bah-bah-bahs” that so many indie bands use to signify an affinity for the decade. “The Void” is both spooky and beautiful, relying on minimalism, harmonies and negative space to achieve a kind of melancholic beauty.