The expression “just like riding a bike” is an easily verifiable one; even after a lengthy respite from a favorite recreational activity, pastime, or craft, once you’re back on the proverbial pedals, there’s a certain muscle memory that kicks in and makes it feel like no time’s passed at all.
Now imagine growing up in the indie pop rock explosion that was the turn of the millennium in the same hometown as genre definers like The Octopus Project, Explosions in the Sky, and Voxtrot. Especially with Voxtrot, high school age me knew that they were something really special, even if I couldn’t tell you what the hell “indie pop” was. So when the quintet called it quits in 2010 (the same year I graduated)…talk about the end of an era.
Well after a decade of change, Voxtrot recently popped back up in the wild with two collections of “classic” material. But those weren’t just one-off efforts; no, the five fellas are finally back in full force and sounding like they never split up in the first place. They officially rekindled things with “Another Fire” in late September and just last Friday kept the momentum going with “New World Romance”. Like the title suggests, “New World Romance” draws quite a bit from NEU!’s brand of krautrock, but pads things out with the ’70s orchestral sensibilities of Nick Drake and MFSB. Altogether, it’s intrinsically Austin-sounding indie pop as imagined by one of the scene’s most seasoned veterans, complete with bright chord progressions and emotionally incandescent lyrics for an upbeat evolution of that iconic mid-millennium sound.
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