Belgian quartet the
Go Find have a winning way around low-key but lush electronic pop that suggests everything from
Isabelle Antena to
St. Etienne and the underrated Surf, all of which can be heard in spades on their excellent second album
Stars on the Wall. That said, two other obvious overarching influences are the continuing impact of
Radiohead and everything after it -- lead vocalist Dieter Sermeus clearly knew what he was doing when called the last song "Kid OK" -- and what could be called the eternal Scandinavian pop continuum, an elegant blend of wistfulness, melancholia, and energy that has informed so many bands from Norway and Sweden in particular ("Downtown"'s acoustic guitar delicacy couldn't make it any plainer). Put it all together on
Stars on the Wall and the result is its own beautiful melange, readily sensed in the brisk, quick kick of songs like "Dictionary," guitar-as-rhythmic glaze, and the just-heartbreaking-enough mantra of "You know/I know" on "25 Years." Happily, there are also enough curveballs thrown in via different arrangements to keep things from settling too much into one specific style. Opener "Beautiful Night" eschews percussion, while "Adrenaline," in contrast to its title, starts out very slow and ruminative, a late-night reflection if ever there was one. The banjo on "Monday Morning" is even more of a sweet surprise, while the penultimate "Everything Is Low" is a great anthem of sorts that perfectly suggests the ending to a slightly downbeat romantic film for the early 21st century. (Hopefully it won't take Wes Anderson's equivalent in 30 years time to discover that.) ~ Ned Raggett