Aeroplane Pageant: Wave to the Moon

Vibrant and lovely from start to finish, Wave to the Moon is the ultimately mesmerizing first full-length from New York collective Aeroplane Pageant. The hazy beauty of the album’s ten tracks approximates, at times, a more indie-fied, less disconsolate version of The Cure (at other times the band recalls contemporaries Belle and Sebastian or The Shins, though overall the group’s music has a unique feel); each song is imbued with sublime guitars, a sense of rhythmic momentum and Brian Kelly’s enigmatic vocals. In winning fashion, opening tracks, “All the Days” and “Wherever September” reveal the core qualities of the band’s sound, both songs marrying dreamy melodies and lushly layered though appropriately understated instrumentation. Other cuts like “Ghost and the Ballerina” prove the band’s ability to craft a truly otherworldly song; the track employs an excellent melody and arrangement, achieving an ethereal glow. The terrific “Hunting” presents a more conventionally accessible vision, gaining its buoyancy from a confident, radio-ready acoustic strum while never yielding any of the artistic ideals already established, allowing Kelly’s vocals and a delightfully gliding electric guitar riff to make their presence known. If this record is any indication, Aeroplane Pageant is a band set to receive a great deal of praise both now and in the future.