Little Joy

Like Vampire Weekend, it's indie rock getting its global groove on.

It's a sunny album with low aspirations, which in this case is a compliment.

Fab and singer Rodrigo Amarante (of Rio De Janeiro’s Los Hermanos) affect the heavy hearts of coastal lounge singers yet retain the resilience of city kids who can’t be beat. Although backup singer Binki Shaprio is too feathery to really make an impact, the sum of Little Joy’s sincere regret and wide-eyed optimism lend a bedroom intimacy to the group’s debut.

A laid-back and easy to digest album with no grand statements to absorb or deeper meanings to dig for, it's made up of simple songs recorded simply and sung sweetly.

Little Joy makes for a fine, self-contained little album.

Little Joy is not going to stop the world or change your life, but it's one of the sweetest, most listenable, consistently enjoyable records of the season.

Nothing on the album is as catchy or as memorable as the Strokes' sharpest material, but several cuts sport a sweet Latin lilt, which helps distinguish the music from work by any number of similarly situated acts.

Little Joy might not quite have built a castle in the sky, but they’ve constructed a cosy little corner in our hearts.

Though sometimes courting sleepiness, the debut's barbershop harmonies, Hawaiian strumming, and lovesick melodies transform rock-club jadedness into an aesthetic fit for honeymoons, holidays, and other occasions where you savor small pleasures, even if they're quaintly recycled.

Producer Noah Georgeson makes all the right decisions in keeping the sound warm, relaxed, and analog to cleverly use the past to give listeners an easy entry point into these pleasant, deceptively simple recordings. [Year End 2008]

While the similarities to Morretti's other group are what make Little Joy so easy to digest, they are also what make it seem somewhat unremarkable.