Gorilla Manor, the first full-length release from Los Angeles quintet Local Natives, sounds like the work of a much more accomplished band, well-formed and generally agreeable.
At the same time, much of it will strike the indie-rock-attuned listener as a pastiche of the oddly familiar, which makes sense: for all their strengths, Local Natives are a band dabbling liberally in the techniques of their contemporaries. Would a Fleet Foxes album by any other name sound as sweet?
That’s an overstatement, but only because of the diffuse nature of Local Native’s influences. At various points, Gorilla Manor experiments with the chamber-pop tendencies of Ra Ra Riot, the taut, detailed compositions of Grizzly Bear, and those now-ubiquitous vocal harmonies that are likely the Foxes’ lasting legacy—not to mention opening track “Wide Eyes,” a spot-on approximation of an especially percussive Band of Horses track. And with so many different elements at work, Gorilla Manor never realizes any single aesthetic as fully as many of their aforementioned peers.
Fortunately, while innovation is in short supply here, good taste is not. Local Natives display an impressive command of space, never cluttering tracks with excess, and they boast a true asset in drummer Matt Frazier, whose persistent clatter prevents Gorilla Manor’s most languid tracks from dragging.
Occasionally, as on standout “Airplanes,” this alchemy succeeds in producing compulsively listenable guitar-pop. More often, Local Natives show flashes of brilliance in melody or production but fail to craft a comprehensively enjoyable record.
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