Hideout

The second album for San Francisco’s Film School continues the group’s continental drift towards atmospheric European pop alongside their name-inferring cinematic ambitions. The group previously scored the soundtrack for comedian Demetri Martin’s internet shorts Clearification, but Hideout brings them back to center on the songs of Film School singer Greg Bertens. Guitars and keyboards solidify into thick sonic walls that recall the dramatic gothic dreamscapes of early to mid-‘80s Cure and Sisters of Mercy (“Compare”) and much of the weightless shoegazer pop (Ride) of the early ‘90s. Reverb and synthesizers are never in short supply. Eerie hooks peek out from under the drones (“Florida”). There’s a melancholy pop undertow haunting much of the material (“Two Kinds,” “Plots and Plans”) that enables the entire album to flow like a hazy story only half-remembered, while a restless garage rock rhythm permeates much of what remains (“What I Meant To Say).” Guest female vocalists add coloring and several tight edits between tracks make for jarring listening.