Review: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. – Horse Power EP

August 23rd, 2010 by Oswald Hobbes / Comment on this post

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. clinch it midway through the second track of their debut EP, Horse Power. Falsetto vocals spiral up over a mild cacophony of acoustic instrumentation with smart electronic accents; it’s like Tapes ‘N Tapes started jamming to Grizzly Bear and gave full reign to the Bollywood Strings preset on their keyboard. The song is called “Vocal Chords” and it’s delightful.

There are four songs here, but one is a Beatles dead-ringer (“Simple Girl”) and one is a cover of the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows.” All showcase the band’s subtle ingenuity. Dead Earnhardt Jr. Jr. do things a lot of other indie bands do, but they do them with a disarmingly innocent twist; the playing is precise and smart and almost glacially pure in tone. On opener “Nothing But Our Love,” they sing, “Don’t try so hard,” and the track spazzes gently toward Postal Service territory.

The duo behind the goofy moniker are from Detroit, but this doesn’t sound like a product of the Motor City; it sounds like the various ingredients were sprinkled from a magical cloud above a pink mountain. It’d make the perfect soundtrack to a late afternoon drive around the fancy part of town, although you might lose patience when they start playing it inside Urban Outfitters.