Family Trees - Wonder

I fully admit to a predilection for brief pop songs, and anyone who has ever been in my presence when The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Do You Believe In Magic” fades out at the 1:58 mark can attest to how inordinately excited I become over such an enormous song being wrapped up in such a tidy little package. So when I saw the 1:52 time stamp for Family Trees’ “Wonder,” I knew it would take a ballet of missteps to prevent this song from becoming a summer staple.

Economy of time is not the only connection this Brooklyn band has to great pop songs of the past. The simple instrumentation, end-of-summer atmosphere and sultry melodies recall early Kinks and Zombies records, while the homespun intention-matters-more-than-precision philosophy and performance nod at both The Go-Betweens and Beat Happening.

Electric piano and glockenspiel quickly introduce a nursery-rhyme melody as the flesh over a skeletal rhythm section and song structure. Rapid handclaps and a pulsing bass add a sense of urgency and playfulness that soon give way to a languid, melancholy vocal. Perfectly orchestrated percussion in the form of handclaps, tambourine and a drummer who knows exactly when it’s time to switch to the toms lend the song an effortless flow, and then, before it has time to fully seep in, the song is over.

There are times when you know a song has gone on too long (Stevie Wonder, I’m looking at you), and there are times when a good song gets cut down in the prime of its life. How Family Trees managed to give us an un-rushed, fully realized pop song in 1:52 both confounds and excites the hell out of me. It means I can listen to it whenever I want to, strictly because I want to – I don’t feel compelled to re-listen because I’ve been gypped, nor do I feel I have to ration out spins in fear that it will quickly wear out its welcome. This song is the perfect lead-off hitter for a summer lineup, and that’s exactly where I’ve got it batting.

Family Trees - Wonder

Pop Winds - Feel It

Let’s call a spade a spade before things get out of hand - Pop Winds are pushing air through the same reeds that Peter Gabriel blew in the 80’s, which also happen to be the same ones Anand Wilder and Yeasayer are currently blowing on NPR and festival stages far and wide. Apparently those reeds still have a lot of life in them, and the Montreal band’s bellows are strong – so strong that I find my iPod thumb hovering over “Feel It” from Pop Winds’ first full-length, The Turquoise, far more frequently than I do anything from Yeasayer’s first two albums.

Opening with a simple drum program and bass pattern that serve as the foundation for the entire song, it isn’t long before polyrhythmic layers of drum machines and reverb-laden toms conjure scenes from some secret meeting that may or may not have taken place sometime during 1979. You know, the one where Peter Gabriel and David Byrne (Paul Simon was invited but arrived a little late) took the Afro Beat and the Tribal Chant and, utilizing the latest technology, successfully grafted them onto the Anglo-American Pop Song.

When I try to find a reason why this track, from this band, that sounds like that other, more famous band that sounds like that still-more famous dude who’s been around since Genesis, I’m left with only possibilities and no definite answers. Maybe it’s the earnestness of the emotion behind the song - the pain of a dissolving relationship and the hurt in the singer’s voice that is present for only a few straightforward lines before numbness settles into his nervous system in self-preservation.

Or it could be the perfectly placed, nearly elated group vocal stabs in the chorus whose passion offsets the lead singer’s resignation to his numbness. “I don’t feel it, I don’t feel anything,” he calls, but it’s obvious in the group response that there is still plenty of feeling going on.

Maybe it’s the addition of an alto saxophone, the lone acoustic instrument, which plays it straight enough so that those moments when it veers off to find an elusive high note or two grab you by the heart and give it a good blood pumping squeeze.

Or maybe it’s just the fact that this song is more raw than anything by Yeasayer or Peter Gabriel. It doesn’t have the big-budget studio sheen those other guys seem to think is necessary to get this kind of world-music-synth-pop-rock across. And even though there may be fewer live instruments at play here as opposed to those other guys, this song affects a warmth and a relatable pulse that can’t be denied, and that sets it apart just enough from the rest to make it a welcome ripple in the tide of world-beat pop.

Pop Winds - Feel It