Young - EP

Album Review

Summer Camp may get lumped in with the chillwave wave of 2010 but the duo of Elizabeth Sankey and Jeremy Warmsley aren’t really all that chill. Though they don’t play their wonderfully sunny pop exactly straight, there is enough peppy energy in their songs to make chilling the last thing you want to do when spinning their debut EP, Young. The only connection to the chill brigade is the general cruddiness of the equipment they use. The drum machine is clanky, the synths are strictly toy town, and the vocals sound a little muffled and next-roomy, but it would take more than lousy equipment to bury the songcraft, ear for a hook, and overall lightheartedness on display here. Sankey has an amazing pop voice, able to croon quietly or boom out the choruses without ever getting pitchy or overpowering. Whether it’s a dance floor filler like "Round the Moon," a cute ballad like "Veronica Sawyer," or a lilting love song like "Jake Ryan" (nice 16 Candles reference!), she fits into the wobbly, warped prom jam aesthetic perfectly. The music is suitably dreamy, sounding at times like a little kid’s version of Animal Collective, and always full of little hooks that pop out and grab your ear. It’s a nice combo of richly textured and surface-smooth music that rewards close listening and could easily serve as enchanting low-volume background filler. The uptempo tracks would sound great blasting over a club PA, too. Young is a great introduction to a very promising band.