(Matador)

Brooklynite art-pop duo Tanlines, aka Jesse Cohen and Eric Emm, are contemporaries of Yeasayer and Health, and perhaps some positive pre-judging on that basis is required. After a batch of singles, splits and remixes, the pair fully embrace the sound of 1980s pop on this debut album, right down to the fuzz-toned ‘Green Grass’ – a song whose rough production is the only thing keeping it from a John Hughes soundtrack – the piano-led house ballad ‘Not the Same’ and the African drumming styles that drive songs such as ‘Real Life’. There are traces of greatness on this, an album that sinks in rather than floats by.

tanlines - real life