Phil Mongredien 

Ducktails: St Catherine review – carefree serenity undercut with melancholy

The fifth outing for Matt Mondanile’s side project is ideal fare for a lazy summer afternoon
  
  

ducktails the band
Ducktails: ideal for lazy summer afternoons. Photograph: Shawn Brackbrill Photograph: Shawn Brackbrill

Matt Mondanile might be best known as the guitarist in mellow indie rockers Real Estate, but he has been recording as Ducktails for longer, with an initial emphasis on more experimental, lo-fi amorphous jamming. As time has gone on, however, his two bands have undergone a gradual stylistic convergence: as with Real Estate at their best (see last year’s Atlas), the songs on this fifth album sound deceptively lightweight on the surface, but their air of carefree serenity is undercut with tugs of melancholy. The breezy Surreal Exposure is an unhurried delight, as is instrumental opener The Disney Afternoon. Throw in a couple of collaborations with Julia Holter, and you have an album that’s ideal for lazy summer afternoons.

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*