Brilliant Colors

It's only fitting that Brilliant Colors are signed to Slumberland, since the San Francisco, CA-based trio borrow heavily from the iconic label's catalogue. With their cute, but noisy, songs and gritty production values, listeners will be reminded of classic indie pop bands such as Stereolab and Velocity Girl, which is obvious from "Hey Dan," which begins the album with jangling guitar strums, brisk drums and poignantly strained vocals. This, like the other nine tracks, will likely appeal to fans of the genre, but Brilliant Colors unfortunately don't bring anything new to the table. And while this disc doesn't contain any duds, these songs aren't quite memorable enough to compensate for the fact that they all sound distinctly like something you've heard before. Brilliant Colors are hardly the only contemporary band that borrow liberally from retro indie pop, but other artists, like the Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Vivian Girls, succeed by injecting more personality and memorable hooks into their derivative songs.