The Laughing Chimes - In This Town

Bloody hell. This is the truth! Pretty Olivia, the Spanish label also responsible for the release of The Reds, Pinks and Purples debut LP a few years back, have uncovered another gem with Laughing Chimes, an impossibly young Ohio trio/four piece (i think it changes?) who showcase a preterntaural ability for the kind of perfect jangling indiepop that seems beyond many other seasoned veterans. I wont lie, the teenage element is hugely appealing, that WTF sense of how are they this capable and inspired and still this young. I'm sure that's something that only concerns old folk like me and not these brilliant and precocious younguns. In This Town bears a resemblance to early REM, The Clean and other Flying Nun melodicists, some of the less knowing output of Elephant 6, and with a song like Your Paisley Rug, might have found a place on the Strum and Thrum comp had it been born in another time. That gives you a clue as to how this sounds, but could essentially be irrelevant. The truth might be that The Laughing Chimes know nothing of any of this and got to this point by other means, or even, if you can still stomach such a romantic notion, all by themselves. Whatever, this is beautiful, sincere and endearingly pure music making that keeps our world spinning.