Small wonder that Van Dyke Parks and The High Llamas are up to speed with the songs of Jason Maclsaac and Andrew Watt: their sunny surf anthems and sad saltwater ballads touch on the orchestral terrain of their hero, Brian Wilson. Which doesn’t mean they’re blatant copyists. Their geography and their sound are poles apart, lending the spooky pop of “Try Telling That To My Baby”and the grandly structured “Fall On My Sword”real artistic punch. Spiritual survival is the name of the HBs game, and they carry it off, too.
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