Joy Zipper - American Whip
[Vertigo]

Only taking a year longer than planned to be released and plagued with bad luck from the start, 'American Whip' the duo's second and most eagerly awaited album finally sees the light of day after continued legal battles & label trouble.

With sun-kissed West Coast harmonies, an influence of textured My Bloody Valentine guitar layers and the drone-rock of Spacemen 3, 'American Whip' contains some of the most gorgeous music around. Lyrics about youth & relationships, sung in a fun, cutesy shared male / female vocal, the album is bursting with a childlike naivety.

However, it's not all light-hearted and songs about love; a dark & subtle humour hides amongst the lush vocals. Add the concerning titles of 'Alzheimers' and 'Dosed And Became Invisible', a suggested paranoia creates an unexpected weirdness that shouldn't quite go with such beautiful tunes. But it does, and effortlessly too.

A genuine crime if this had never been released, the return of shoe-gazing starts here. 'American Whip' easily has the potential to be album of the year already, and well worth the delay. This could have even made a better soundtrack to Sofia Coppola's 'Lost In Translation'.