Imaginary Friend

The fact that Th Faith Healers were originally picked up by the spacy English label Too Pure is certainly significant — their music, while seemingly in line with indie-rock conventions, has so many elements of noise and drone in it that it appears to have crossed over to listeners of more spacy, organ-driven music. Imaginary Friend manages to satisfy all of these different interests, floating back and forth between soupy waves of distorted guitars and clean, ringing, indie-rock tones ("Kevin," "Heart Fog"). The real thrill of the band's songwriting lies in the way surprising pop moments can emerge from the mess of sound — the chorus of "See-Saw" is an unexpected burst of melody that transcends all of the band's noisier tendencies. Imaginary Friend is arguably Th Faith Healers' defining album, and that makes it well worth a listen; somewhere in between sounding like a Too Pure band, a noise project, a precursor to Snowpony, and the badass cousins of Madder Rose, Th Faith Healers managed to find a unique and compelling style that no other band has truly approached.