Local Natives - Gorilla Manor

Local Natives have a familiar sound– rustic vocals, harmonies, clattering percussion– but songwriting skill and youthful energy mark their striking debut. Advance singles “Airplanes” and “Sun Hands” recalled elements of Dodos or the Fleet Foxes, but the best comparison perhaps is that they’re sort of a West Coast Grizzly Bear– right down to naming an album after the location in which it was recorded. Yet whereas Grizzly Bear’s Yellow House is a cozy, isolated New England seaside shack, Local Natives’ Gorilla Manor is a squalid Orange County party pad. While we tend to bow at novelty and innovation, Gorilla Manor proves to be a refreshing reminder of the pleasures of synthesis.