Vesuvio Solo

'Favors' (album stream)

BY Alex HudsonPublished Oct 8, 2014

Thom Gillies used to play bass in TOPS, but these days he makes up one half of Vesuvio Solo along with longtime friend Cameron MacLean. Their debut album is called Favors, and it's available to stream now ahead of its release on October 14 via Banko Gotiti/Atelier Ciseaux.

A press release notes that Gillies and MacLean's songs "are populated by unusual characters, and address themes of coming of age, meaning-in-love, and humuor in the midst of change." Favors was recorded in pieces over the past three years.

The result of their efforts is a hazy collection of smooth, yacht-inspired pop with a warped and hazy aesthetic that brings to mind Mac DeMarco, Ariel Pink and the Arbutus Records catalogue. There are jangly guitars aplenty, while the title cut incorporates quirky woodwinds, "Presence" pushes the band's sound in a more acoustic direction, and "Boy Blue" has a bleary disco swagger.

Hear it all below.

Cassette copies of the album can be pre-ordered here if you're in North America and here for those overseas.

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