Rolodex's lush and angular guitars supplied by Mackenzie Bunch are tone-setting centerpiece, from the unfurling, harp-like strums on opener “Dixie Lane” to the shimmering dance riffs on “Utah.”
For his part, though, Bunch credits Scott Huerta for the band’s most unique qualities. “His vocal melodies and harmonies, those are my favorite parts of these songs,” he says. “They’re intricate, high-level stuff with a lot of counter-melodies.”
This might be most evident on the playful and cascading “Isn’t Anyone?,” a song that showcases Huerta as an impassioned crooner, a trickster poet and a one-man choir. Even on the album’s seemingly straightforward soul-pop closer, “So Good”—which finds everyone grooving in unison over a Rob Mills quasi-breakbeat—there are myriad twists and sonic buried treasures to discover.
French Cassettes’ newfound growth and experimentation is a wonder to behold. This music doesn’t sound like anything else in the known indie rock universe. It’s music that takes a lot of repeated listens to fully unravel—and music that could very well make a person drop everything, gasp, and say “I love this song.”
