Debut album by a four piece, from Santa Cruz, CA, whose joyous folk pop has been compared to Sufjan Stevens, The Decemberists and Beirut. A bedroom band put together by 22-year-old Dylan McKeever, Antarctica Takes It! recorded the songs on The Penguin League straight onto a friend s laptop, using the computer s internal microphone. No problem if you re a straightforward rock n roll band, but Dylan s songs boasted an array of accordions, glockenspiels, cellos, ukuleles, trumpets, harmonicas and pianos. The result should have been extremely lo-fi and in places it is (you can actually hear the instruments battling for airpace at some points). But, overall, thanks to Dylan s patience and prodigious talent, The Penguin League conjures a tiny orchestra out of thin air. From the opening I m No Lover , which sees mariachi
horns collide with a rattling folk melody, to the magical Flightless Birds , which transports Pet Sounds to the Antarctic wastes, this is a record that sounds like it s anywhere but a suburban bedroom on the American West Coast.
1 I'm No Lover 1:34
2 Circuits 2:53
3 My Friend Sam Saarni 2:42
4 Heart Of Stone 3:24
5 The Song Is You 3:58
6 Fog Song 2:27
7 Flightless Birds 2:26
8 Davenport Coast 3:49
9 Antarctica 4:15
10 Goodbye 1:33
... more