3 out of 5

Label: You Are Not Stealing Records

Producer: Party People in a Can?

Dunno how this fits into the YANSR stable yet, but Party People spin up a familiar light folky style, reminding me of Cowboy Junkies or Schooner or something else with that peaceful and poppy vibe.  This is most rewarding over headphones, as there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on with percussion that just gets lost over speakers because of how head-bobby the music is – and this is where PPiaC do right by me over a lot of band’s that mine a similar style, not just the layered stuff that comes forth over repeated listens, but there’s just a little bit of quirk to all of this that makes it memorable.  The lyrics aren’t connecting, I won’t lie, but the songs are, and I get little snippets of the tunes stuck in my head, which is nice.  That it’s an EP probably works to its benefit, as I imagine getting a little sleepy at an album’s worth of this stuff, but then again the band is obviously cognizant of sequencing, as last track “Tourist Shooting Tar Balls” starts off with sort of silly lyrics but really perks up into a unique tune amongst the laid back jams that precede it.

Nothing brand new under the sun, but a slowly rewarding listen.