White Shoes and the Couples Company: White Shoes and the Couples Company

White Shoes and the Couples Company are just the kind of wonderfully obscure find that we (elitist) indie rock critic types spend our (lonely) nights dreaming about. What better way to prove your musicological superiority over your friends than by introducing them to an Indonesian art school six-piece that barely anyone this side of Jakarta has ever heard of? Especially when they’re this good. The band’s debut is filled with breezy, love-struck ballads that showcase a taste for loungy ’60s pop. Like six modern-day East Asian Burt Bacharach’s, the group drowns their songs in woodwinds and strings, “doo-doos” and “ba-dahs”. And while much of album is sung in Indonesian, the melodies (voiced by Aprilia Apsa with some help from her boyfriend, Yusmario Farabi), are so sweet and so catchy that you’ll barely even notice. And neither will your friends.