“Perfect Trip” by Darlings

Darlings
Perfect Trip
[Self-Released]

In the age of slick production and auto-tuned vocals, it’s refreshing to listen to a band that strives to get their message and music across without frills and furbelows. The New York quartet Darlings have been making music since meeting in college and over five years later, they have kept their straightforward, garage-pop sound without a hint of quarter-life crisis.

Darlings’ second full length album, Perfect Trip, takes the listener from harmony-laden slacker pop tunes to grungy garage pop. The influence of musicians like Ty Segall, The Replacements, and Pavement are evident in the sometimes matter-of-fact delivery of vocals and the wall of fuzz-pop sound. The opening track “Nothing I Don’t Care For” is charming with its boy-girl harmony and catchy beat. Songs like “Extras Talk To Extras” and “Public Access” grind away pleasantly in your ears, leaving you wrapped in a blanket of garage pop. Perfect Trip is the kind of album that you will not mind revisiting over and over again.