Originally formed by vocalist Lindsay Gordon and multi-instrumentalist Will Lakritz in Boston in 2010, hazy pop merchants Pajama People soon found in their adoptive home of Brooklyn, NY percussionist Steven Salazar and bassist Luke Alvine. And with their rhythm section complete, the band proceeded to release a handful of EP’s and singles (which you can see over at their Bandcamp page) and began looking forward to the release of their debut LP. Set to be released on April 26th via Memory No. 36 Recordings, Cool Intentions seems poised to further the band’s excursions into the murkier side of pop music.
“Shake Me Away,” the latest single from their forthcoming debut, feels practically elastic as it twists and contorts around the pop foundation that the band has engineered. At times, Gordon’s vocals sound eerily similar to Kate Bush, and the band marshals a great keyboard melody around a rather Pixies-ish line of percussion, with Alvine’s bass provoiding the necessary pop and wobble necessary to keep the song from feeling too bogged down or too self-serious. Borrowing heavily from a subtle 80’s pop aesthetic and a sense of relative musical naivete, the track successfully walks the fine line between feeling overly-grounded and sounding like it might just simply dissolve into some musical ephemera. And as easily as the musical touchstones can be spotted, the song never feels overly attached to its own influences, nor does it merely sound like the sum of its admittedly fascinating parts. The band knows its way around a great melody, and “Shake Me Away” is a perfect example of their gauzy pop construction.
Beats Per Minute is pleased to premiere the latest track from Pajama People’s upcoming debut Cool Intentions for Memory No. 36 Recordings.
