From the moment the driving drum beat that leads the path towards this song’s beginning rolls forth, you are drawn into a memory-evoking, post-punk, dream-pop paradise – Portland’s Little Oso have captured a delightful, 80s inspired jangling slice of guitar pop with lead single Other People’s Lives.
Vocally reminiscent of the C86 era in its naturalistic delicacy and cold-room reverb, there are further sonic echoes in the song’s production which recalls at times the ramshackle jangle of Talulah Gosh and The Primitives. It’s a song in sonic harmony with another time and place but lyrically feels entirely of the moment- words pouring out in collected images that offer curious snapshots whose simplicity when combined seems to take on greater significance.
As the song draws further to its conclusion, this delicate beauty is faded further into a frothing fizz of white noise distortion that acts like sonic fog for the listener to get lost in, wrapping Jeannette Berman’s ethereal voice in an ear-bending ocean-like roar. It’s a perfectly judged bit of aural dissonance that gives impact to the song’s final notes that seem to linger more spectrally as a result.
We will have to wait until January for Little Oso’s album (out on Repeating Cloud and Safe Suburban Home)- until then Other People’s Lives should have much to sate the dream-pop desires of many.
Written by M.A Welsh (Misophone)
Music | Misophone (bandcamp.com)
