Galore

The British duo of John Hamson Jr. and Marcus Pepperell knew their lifelong friendship (since age 11) demanded they work together. The telepathic understanding between two friends isn’t often fair to outsiders, and together they speedily put together the dramatic, dense pop of Galore, an 11-track album that sounds like a much larger band celebrating the shimmering—and fleeting—promise of youth. “Now We Are Sixteen,” featuring guest vocals from Summer Camp, starts quietly, with a somber, nostalgic melody line that’s surrounded by so many memories, with music that threatens to detonate at any minute. That it teases us for so long is one of its greatest strengths and the kind of musical foreplay that forces us to pay attention through the album. Guitars, synths, bass, drums, and random horns supply these heavily reverbed fever dreams with an overabundance of musical details. But once you're acclimated to the sounds, “Dancing’s Done,” “Sound of Screams," and “Together Now” reveal gorgeous tunes that deserve attention.