Do-The-Undo

Following the breakup of the much-beloved Dutch indie pop act Daryll-Ann, guitarist Anne Soldaat formed his own band, Do-the-Undo. Favoring a more specifically retro sound than Daryll-Ann ever seemed interested in, Do-the-Undo are unapologetically entranced by the sounds of the '70s. "The Concrete Floor" and "Take Me Lord" recall the tightly compressed fuzz riffs and falsetto harmonies of Big Star's #1 Record. "Mary" and "A House Is Not a Home" are slide guitar-inflected shuffles reminiscent of some of Paul McCartney & Wings' experiments in country music. The riff-rocking "My Girl Don't Mind" is glammy boogie in the T. Rex or Sweet style. Elsewhere, the perfectly deployed string sections on songs like "Two Sides" and "Shake Hands, Be Polite" (which also mixes the decades up by corralling a vocal hook from Culture Club's "Karma Chameleon" and a Motown-style bass riff straight out of the Holland-Dozier-Holland playbook) bring up happy memories of the lushness that drenched the AM radio dial all through that decade. Throughout the album, Soldaat's high-register vocals and archly precise enunciation make him sound like the Dutch cousin of Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch, especially on floaty, twee tunes like "I Know Now" and the ultra-bouncy, extremely camp "This Man." It potentially doesn't bode well for Do-the-Undo's longevity that it's easy and fun to come up with at least one or two immediate stylistic forebears to every song on the album, but the four-piece (also featuring former Daryll-Ann bassist Dick Brouwers) are clearly having fun with their referents, and the playful, low-key good vibes of the album are infectious.