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Credit must be given to LP mastermind Jim Cicero, who at age 23 proves he's wiser than his years by crafting a set of compelling tunes that sound surprisingly distinct despite the past and present musical inspirations that could've just as easily overwhelmed it.
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Apparitions is a solid debut that both emulates the band's contemporaries and revisits a once influential genre that most of that peer group have all but abandoned.
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This feeling of isolation envelops the bulk of Apparitions. It's a psychedelic, claustrophobic mush of layered synthesizers, organs, drum pads, and breezy voices reflecting against the walls of wide-open corridors; evocative of the unsettling feeling of being completely alone in a very big space, a la David Bowman or Sam Bell.
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Although Cicero and Light Pollution still have quite awhile to go before they're the ones being emulated rather than the ones doing the emulating, Apparitions is a solid debut album from a band that definitely has a lot of potential.
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Apparitions is merely a debut album from a young band who know their way around electronics and textures a hell of a lot better than most other young bands. And although at times it seems like they're copying right off of Merriwether Post Pavilion's paper, they muster just enough creative vision to avoid lawsuit-level infringement.
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Their careers adviser-flouting debut is in the mould of the greats rather than carving a new sound.
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Occasionally, the band misses its target. "Fever Dreams" is danceable and slick, and "Drunk Kids" sounds a bit too much like it's sung by one of the kids the title references. However, all in all, Apparitions is an ambitious and satisfying debut.
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Nearly the entirety of Apparitions feels covered by some haze that's equal parts car exhaust and glitter.
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Too often songs come across as a pastiche of the Atlanta group, with none of the splashes of colour, none of the real sense of building atmosphere.
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The record can at times feel static and repetitious, revisiting the same structural devices numerous times and using a lot of the same timbres and ambient sounds on every track.