Peaking Lights

Cosmic Logic

BY Scott SimpsonPublished Oct 3, 2014

9
When Peaking Lights announced their new full-length album Cosmic Logic with first single "Breakdown" and its misleading Basement Jaxx-like intro, it was clear we were being launched into a brand new iteration of the band's constantly evolving sound. All supremely catchy melodies, simple and almost spoken-word lyricism and constant use of repetition, Cosmic Logic contains probably some of the most accessible material they've released to date, material that'll hopefully attract a whole new slew of fans.

There's a lot to love within the album's 11 tracks: charming ode to the Riot Grrrl movement "New Grrrls" name-checks everybody from Lydia Lunch and Kim Gordon to Yoko Ono and Angela Davis, and includes darling lyrics such as "feminism gave me a choice, Riot Grrrl gave me a voice," while "Eyes To See" manages to make a beguilingly simple chorus out of "shhhhhs," "ahhhs" and "oooohs" that actually works. Album highlight "Telephone Call," defined by an'80s analog-pop sound, can be seen as the most direct interpretation of the album's inspiration and title, stemming from band members and real-life husband and wife Aaron Coyes and Indra Dunis looking up to the stars to find their muse.

Coyes mentions that Peaking Lights is their idea of "fucked modern pop" and while they may not yet know what that means, it's a pretty accurate description of their fusion of psychedelic guitars, experimental rock, dancehall, Afrobeat flourishes and everything in between. This new full-length, recorded in their own garage studio in L.A. and mixed with the help of LCD Soundsystem collaborator Matt Thornley, will play nicely alongside the Juan Maclean's new effort In A Dream (not surprisingly released on Thornley's longtime playground label DFA Records). And while Cosmic Logic marks a new shift for the duo, it may also be a great jumping off point to what a future Peaking Lights album may sound like, with album closer "Tell Me Your Song" acting like a junction, or maybe simply a segue, to this new musical incarnation.
(Weird World)

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