Every Sidewalk

The four years between the releases of Galactic Heroes records has luckily meant no change to their happy-go-lucky indie pop sound. Built around the frantically strummed acoustic guitars of Mike and Ricky, the songs are layered with all sorts of percussion, keyboards, bells, horns, and aural sweets. On top sit the cute but not precious vocals, both Mike and Ricky sing in the open-throated, wide-eyed style of teenage kids discovering pop for the first time, and their harmonies are unremittingly sweet. Maybe the more hard-hearted among us may dismiss this record and the band as twee, but anyone who goes beyond the obvious will see and hear that the band has a passion and highly developed sense of arrangement and craft that propels them beyond amateur status. Songs like the shimmering "Payphone Country," "Brisk Shower," the propulsive "Sing-a-Long," and "All Makes a Day" are the work of a band that knows what it's doing. They may be coming from toytown, but the Galactic Heroes aim much higher and on Every Sidewalk they reach the tiptop of indie pop.