Album Review: Kite Party - Baseball Season

Kite Party are a band that is comfortable with the way they sound. There isn’t a single note of reticence throughout the entire thirty minutes of music that makes up the band’s debut full-length and follow up to the acclaimed "Wish Mountain" EP. Theirs is a sound that perfectly blends the less-annoying aspects of modern day jangly indie with the triumphant sound of mid-90’s emo.

The early twinklings of opening track "Welcome To Miami" sounds like The Killers, but it soon transcends the realms of twee indie pop into something more substantial a few bars later. The track is full of cymbal crashes that work in tandem with swirling guitars and distinctive vocals that conspire to make impressively confident music. "Baseball Season" is far removed from sugary sweet pop rock, but the band still manages to construct catchy anthems in their own way. Take sophomore track "Runner", structurally it doesn’t contain a chorus as such, but the delivery and melody of lines such as “I don’t wanna be loved, I just wanna be faithful” resonate with the listener instantly. It is the vocalist of Kite Party that really stands out above the impressively competent musicianship. The hoarse delivery of the final line of "Runner" gives a little window into the emotion of the lyricist and contains enough fragility to sit well alongside the relatively upbeat tone of the music.

There are a few moments on the album, where the band are a little too jangly, and flirt with the ‘hipster indie’ tag; the prime example being the mildly irritating "Spirit Gum". That said these moments are few and far between, and most of the album is beautifully atmospheric. "High Tower" is a sprawling epic that consists of shimmering guitars and haunting vocals, and "Buried In Dogs" is of a similar construct and eventually devolves into an almost spiritualistic chanting and tribal drumming session. However, it is on the track "Arizona" where the band really hit the mark though. A combination of reverb-heavy bass and jangly guitars create a mesmerizing rhythm and once again the vocalist is able to turn the simplest of statements (in this case a solitary word) into a memorable and catchy chorus.

"Baseball Season" is a triumph in its genre, although it won’t take with everyone. If indie is your thing, but you’re sick of the over the top pomp of the mainstream, Kite Party may well prove to be your antidote.

4/5

"Baseball Season" is out now through Animal Style Records.

Dan Issitt