YellowFever

(Wild World)

Following a series of self-released EPs with a full-length debut on the Vivian Girls’ label isn’t a bad place to land. Austin trio YellowFever definitely has the same reference points and aesthetics as the Brooklyn gals, like those delightful minor-key harmonies tempered with more shape and structure, less amorphous reverb. If YellowFever’s songs were furniture, they’d be IKEA: efficient, easy to put together, and don’t take up a lot of space. Older songs “Ratcatcher,” “Psychedelic,” and “Donald,” although essentially just a spare bassline/guitar riff and drums, still manage to get stuck in your head, and newer songs “Joe Brown” and “Culver City” spend a little more time on pop composition. In the end, you feel sated – it’s a solid, metronomic collection – but it’d be nice to hear YellowFever amp it up a bit.

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This article appears in January 22 • 2010.

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