Almost by definition, twee pop walks a precarious line between charming and sickeningly sweet, and the appropriately named California Oranges often wander too far into the latter. While it's true that goofy, bubblegum inspired pop can be good if well done, there simply isn't that much memorable material here. Opener "John Hughes" is joyfully clever (one can never have enough songs about said '80s movie director), but most of the rest of the songs seem so frail that they just disintegrate out of the gate. The boy-girl vocal styles can also work -- look at
Velocity Girl -- but, once again, here they just add to make this release a bit too cutesy. The length of the CD is an issue, too; 25 minutes is shorter than most EPs, never mind full-lengths, and that makes this an expensive purchase. ~ Jason Damas