There’s no telling what\u2019s to come from musical collaborations, which I guess is the point. Sometimes they create enthralling fusions \u2014 De La Soul with Teenage Fanclub, Gorillaz, (hell, De La Soul with anyone) \u2014 and sometimes the results are tragic \u2014 David Bowie and Mick Jagger anyone?<\/p>\n
When Glasgow\u201ds The Pastels and Tokyo\u201ds Tenniscoats joined forces, there was room for excitement. After all, The Pastels are considered the godfathers of twee, while Tenniscoats has a proven record of forging pop alliances for elegant albums. It sounds like a perfect match.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not. While Two Sunsets is not a stupefying disaster of pop minds, it\u2019s not a stunning piece of work either.<\/p>\n
It slumbers early on, dragging through a five-minute \u201cSong For a Friend\u201d that feels like forever. \u201cVivid Youth\u201d awakens the album a bit, serving as an example of what The Pastels do best yet revealing little collaborative thought. While evidence of cooperation proves true as Sunsets progresses \u2014 \u201cBoats\u201d is a charming piece, while Sodone\u2019s lilting guitar and Tenniscoats\u2019 Saya Ueno\u2019s playful singing highlight the best of both bands \u2014 too often the songs become background.<\/p>\n
Maybe the bands spent too much time catering to one another (the album did take three years to make) instead of stamping Sunsets with a sole identity. The only defined track is not even their song. \u201cAbout You,\u201d a Jesus and Mary Chain cover, is a decent take but feels out of sorts \u2014 sounding like a late addition.<\/p>\n
On their own The Pastels and Tenniscoats produce purposeful and dynamic music, but together they come across as muted and tame.<\/p>\n
And the result is just, well, nice. Not bad, but then again not good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There’s no telling what\u2019s to come from musical collaborations, which I guess is the point. Sometimes they create enthralling fusions \u2014 De La Soul with Teenage Fanclub, Gorillaz, (hell, De La Soul with anyone) \u2014 and sometimes the results are tragic \u2014 David Bowie and Mick Jagger anyone? When Glasgow\u201ds The Pastels and Tokyo\u201ds Tenniscoats […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[310,311,309],"class_list":["post-1227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-tenniscoats","tag-the-pastels","tag-two-sunsets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1227"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1229,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions\/1229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}