Discover a Lovelier You

It’s impossible not to compare Joe Pernice with the Zombies’ Colin Blunstone. Both sing with breathy, buttery-smooth inflections that sound whispered at times. Without being directly influenced by the Zombies, the Pernice Brothers play similarly sophisticated baroque-pop and their 2005 album Discover a Lovelier You is one of their best examples of this. Some new-wave sounding synthesizers keep “There Goes the Sun” from sounding too retro. Conversely, “Saddest Quo” opens with folk-rocking arpeggios on an old electric guitar with vintage tones that recall later day Byrds recordings. “Dumb It Down” gets breezy with lazy lap-steel slides and tastefully tucked Moog notes bubbling in the background. It’s curious as to why they picked “Discover a Lovelier You” for the title-track, as Pernice’s gossamer voice is strangely absent. Still, even as an instrumental it’s one of the catchiest songs here, with lilting keyboard touches dancing around 12-string guitar leads and bouncy rhythms. And while you’d expect a song titled “Pisshole In the Snow” to come from a high-school punk band, this one is a beautifully melancholic musing of Neil Halstead proportions.