Polyvinyl, 2006
Acquired: Music Staff Meeting, New, 2006
Price: Free
Polyvinyl sure loves putting their pretty ok to very decent records on really, really nice, heavy delicious vinyl. The Asobi Seksu album was also this heavy. I snagged this during my first semester on music staff at KJ, right around the time this went into rotation. I remember hearing “TV” all the time, which is the absolute best song on this record and the absolute best song Headlights have ever written. They're akin to Electrelane but more sunny skies indie-pop and less Krautrock influence. This isn't anywhere close to being a great record, but it is a very, very good record. “TV” fucking kills it every single time and the rest of the songs are, again, very good to very very good. I enjoy listening to it, however I would never list Headlights as one of my favorite bands nor would I go out of my way to see them live (although at SXSW either this year or last I went out of my way NOT to see them, which was apparently really stupid because Nick Spacek said he saw them and that they were fucking awesome). I don't think Headlights is anyone's favorite band, but in ten years this might be a little gem to pull out every now and then while reminiscing about the indie-pop influx of 2006. However, I am not really engaged. After the first three songs I quit paying attention and focused more on reading this new Pitchfork review of Kid A and though I never read their reviews I'm reading this one and it's making me want to listen to that album instead. And then I compare Headlights to Radiohead and Headlights seem stupid. I'm sorry Headlights! Perhaps it's that this record is about four songs too long. I am a firm believer that a good indie-pop album should have about ten songs and run (give or take) around 30 minutes. You can stretch this to twelve songs, usually, as long as you keep stay within the time limits, but indie-pop bands love putting 14 songs on records. Bishop Allen did this with their last record and it fucking sucked. I got so bored. Same thing happens here. Had they saved a few for b-sides, this would be a much more solid album and maybe a great one.
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