Summer Bodies by Dana Buoy (Album)

Sunny calypso pop, synth-laden melodies and blissful vocal harmonies – could this be the perfect summer album? Here’s the forecast

Three years ago, Baltimore eclectics Animal Collective released the classic Merriweather Post Pavilion, an album of such majestic consistency that it relegated The XX’s outstanding debut into second place in many ‘album of the year’ lists. Wherever he was three years ago, Dana Buoy must have been near drowning in a butt of Merriweather because it’s seeped into his very pores. Dana retained his buoyancy by grasping onto the calypso pop of Vampire Weekend and it’s the marriage of these two summer gems, with the service conducted by a new romantic’s synthesizer, that spawned Summer Bodies.

Recorded in the sunny climes of Thailand – even if the recording was interrupted by an earthquake and hurricane Irene – this album is a faithful attempt at distilling the ebullient essence that comes with long nights of sun. Highlights include the blissful Call To Be, which sounds as though it could have been lifted from the Merriweather sessions; the synth-laden So Lucky; and melodic closer We On The Sea, with its excellent vocal harmonies. My only gripe would be with Come My Side, a song so boyband light that it might have been rejected by Simon Cowell.

So will critics be including this album in their 2012 ‘album of the years’ lists? Will they be speaking in three years’ time of the influence it’s had upon a legion of yet-to-be-created long players? Only time will tell.

Verdict: There are at least three months of summer ahead of us and Dana Buoy will keep you floating, during that time, with this fine collection of songs.

Out now on Lefse Records.

Damien Girling

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