An unmistakable West Coast yearning permeates the debut album from Hands, who quit Philadelphia for Los Angeles. Their synths and guitars evoke a twinkling nighttime skyline, while their bellowing vocals aim for Pacific Coast vastness. “Videolove” frames danceable New Wave in hippie-tinged drum circles, and “Trouble” injects East Coast dance-punk with SoCal slacker vibes. A sleek disco pulse runs through the tropical-flavored “The Game Is Changing Us,” filling out the record’s idea of a sun-baked cruise ship proudly flying a wildly colored freak flag.
- Sleeper Agent
- The Limousines
- Wild Nothing
- St. Lucia
- Icky Blossoms
- Local Natives