SHARP PINS - Ballon, Ballon, Ballon

Once again, the artist adds a verve and a quality of songwriting to the nostalgia effect that steers it away from mere backward-looking speculation, even if the second Sharp Pins album is closer to certain pop-psych forays by Guided By Voices and to lo-fi philosophy than to beat aesthetics.

With a powerful track like “Popafangout” the album promises fireworks, soon confirmed by the airy McCartney-esque textures of “(I Wanna) Be Your Girl” and the potential hit, in perfect 60s style, “I Don’t Have The Heart”. Cascades of Rickenbacker chords (“Queen Of Globes And Mirrors”) and surf-beat-style harmonies (“Crown Of Thorns”) give the twenty-one tracks a variety that, on a first, fleeting listen, is somewhat softened by a production that's perhaps a touch hazy.

The album's many musical references are deliberate and even pushed to extremes, and at times the echoes blend together to muddy the waters, as on “I Could Find Out”. Kai Slater doesn't skimp on riffs and quotations, also turning his attention to other sixties phenomena like the Who and the mod scene (“Takes So Long”), even giving in to the temptation to nod to the post-Beatles world (“Gonna Learn To Crawl”).

Vicious riffs (“Stop To Say Hello”), hints of power-pop (“Fall In Love Again”), heartbreaking melodies (“Talking In Your Sleep”) and showers of fuzz guitar (“I Don’t Adore-Youo”) line up one of the most successful nostalgia exercises around, running from the Zombies to Big Star and picking up traces of Cleaner From Venus and the Hollies along the way. What's more, Kai Slater dresses the songs with just the right pinch of irony and emotional distance needed to put forward “Ballon Ballon Ballon“ as a fine piece of music for fun. Handle with lightheartedness.