Album Review: Eternal Summers - Correct Behavior

Eternal Summers
Correct Behavior
Rating: Grrrr

Roanoke, Virginia indie/dream poppers Eternal Summers have recently expanded from a duo to a trio and have slightly polished their bratty take on the typical early 20s view of relationships and life in general. Musically, their sound draws from a lot of 80s/90s alt-rock bands, from Lush's Brit-Pop phase, Primitives, Darling Buds, and Belly. There is a charming confidence to these tracks which storms out of the gates quickly with the brilliant, shimmering rush of "Millions" which is truly one of the great singles of the year.



While nothing else on Correct Behavior quite hits those giddy heights, there is a remarkable breadth of sounds here that carry the record and make it quite the little gem. From the brash, scuzzy guitars of "Heaven and Hell,"



beautiful, drum machine propelled shoegazey track "Summerset" which sounds like a cross between early Cranberries, Saint Etienne, and The Cure,



to the bratty kiss off track "I Love You," Eternal Summers plays with their sound and and change things up to keep you on your toes.

This is very evident from the new wavey strains of "Girls In The City" sung by male member Daniel Cundiff, which scrolls and winds its way around herky jerky guitars, with Cundiff's vocals getting more and more paranoid and shifty.



This definitely shows the band has some other avenues to explore and points to another direction, but for the most part, Correct Behavior's bread and butter are the 2-3 minute power pop track. Tracks like the dueling guitar chug of "Wonder,"



cool and fuzzy "You Kill,"



and the sunny and chipper "Disappear,"



are just perfect little pop songs that never overstay their welcome.

Correct Behavior is not a game changing or watershed moment, it is simply a really solid pop record that shows a band with a nice base sound that they enjoy taking on interesting tangents. It is a slow building record that keeps finding its way back onto your playlist. What a wonderful surprise.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.