Ambulance Ltd

What can be said about a band that bases their music on someone else’s without any effort to craft a sound of their own? Brooklyn’s Ambulance Ltd. are shamelessly unoriginal on every song of their eponymous debut album. Like last year’s Ambulance Ltd. EP (titles aren’t their specialty), this album sounds as if the quartet have been scheduling their band meetings around selecting each musical moment they’d like to rip off from the records they love. Most concerning of all though is how the young band has managed to meld together characteristics from artists like the Beatles, My Bloody Valentine, Pavement and Elliott Smith and actually create something worth listening to. Consider it a guilty pleasure, if you like it, whatever helps you sleep at night, but Ambulance Ltd. have the songs to avoid the foreseen scrutiny. From the Velvet Underground imitating "Primitive (The Way I Treat You)” to the Ride-meets-Elliott Smith jangle-pop of "Stay What You Are,” they push all of the right buttons in order to make this music delectable.