dreamdate

Dreamdate are my new favourite band right now. They're two best friends, Yea-Ming and Anna, from California who studied music together and now make some of the sweetest, most infectious little pop sherbets going around. Their second album Patience is full of songs that sound like the perfect combination of 90s "cuddlecore" and that period when K Records knocked out Tiger Trap and other girly bands with the right combination of punk and sweet pop sensibilities. My favourite track is "8 Sleeves" - after two listens, its catchy chorus wouldn't shift out of my mind. The whole album is so deceptively simple, but I bet it takes such effort to write such pretty, easygoing songs - Dreamdate sure have succeeded here.

What I love most is the vocals - harmonies straight from The Softies songbook, and a sound that makes me want to listen to Slumber Party's Psychedelicate in tandem. You know, those sort of deep, husky vocals that warm you like hot chocolate and tickle you like feathers sweeping along your arm. I feel like a cozy sweater hearing beautiful harmonies on tracks such as "Tables" and title track "Patience", all wrapped up in acoustics and sweet oooohs.

Best of all, it shows how much promise Portland's Skywriting Records has - after releasing the excellent Cloetta Paris record last year (who I fell hard for), it's another success for this burgeoning pop label.