Icarus Himself

I've featured Icarus Himself before, two songs from the excellent debut album Coffins.

In case you've forgotten them here are the links again:

Sometimes I Can't Stand You, But That Doesn't Mean I Don't Want You Around by Icarus Himself (this may very well be the most played song on iTunes for me)

Precedents - Icarus Himself.

I described them as lo-fi, sarcastic, funny and cynical indie rock.

Now they've got a new EP out, (in fact it was released in May, I should have posted about it ages ago), called Mexico.



Mexico is all the things that Coffins is, but more. It may be that the more restricted focus of the EP format has led to more concentrated songs, whatever the reason this is a huge step forward from the already excellent Coffins. The songs are still minimalist and lo-fi, but in a much more textured way. Mexico sounds like Coffins with equal parts of Beirut, specifically the trumpet, and Wolf Parade, specifically Language City, mixed in. The songs sound murkier, the vocals less to the fore, but this just brings the songs together as a whole.

I know I'm not doing a great job of describing the sound, but that's because it is hard to describe. It's like a really weird case of deja vu, the first time you listen to it the EP sounds familiar but new. Anyway, I'm going to stop trying to describe it now and let you hear for yourself:



It's hard for me to pick a favourite track, but I think I'll go with Seen It Coming (Mexico) the last track from the EP. Give Mexico a try, you will love it.

Buy it (and debut album Coffins) here

Visit their myspace here They're doing an 11 gig tour of some of the northern states (4 of the gigs are in Wisconsin) later this month and into October, dates are on myspace, and you can stream 2 songs from Mexico and 4 from Coffins while you're there.