Let It Slip

For fans of gushy, starry-eyed, rock-your-tambourines-off, girl group-inspired indie pop goodness, it really doesn't get much better than this. The School's debut EP, Let It Slip, is a perfect balance of sugary pop hooks, goopy instrumentation (sparkly synthesizers, squinchy trumpet solos — you get the idea), and lead singer Liz Hunt's fuzzy-wuzzy yet ever-so-slightly deadpan vocals. Comparisons to Camera Obscura and Saturday Looks Good to Me are inevitable — what sets the School apart from the indie pop pack probably has more to do with Hunt's skill as a vocalist than anything else. Like Camera Obscura's Tracyanne Campbell and Saturday's Betty Marie Barnes, she's just got "it" — Hunt has this subtle warmth and charm going on in her vocals, as if everything were sung in a half-joking manner. It doesn't hurt that she has a great batch of songs to work with here, either. (Hunt wrote all the songs on the EP, with the exception of "I Want You Back," which she co-wrote with Simon Stone.) "Let It Slip" is far and away the best offering here — it's just a pitch-perfect pop song, all frothy tambourines and fiery basslines. "I Don't Believe in Love" is another highlight — featuring vocals by drummer Rob, it shimmers with synthesized bells and boy-girl harmonies. Clocking in at 14 minutes on the button, Let It Slip is a tantalizingly brief glimpse of one of the most promising bands to emerge on Elefant's roster in 2008.