Car Stereo Wars: For Your Comfort and Safety

While the name “Car Stereo Wars” might sound like the title of an abandoned late-’90s Flaming Lips concept album, it is, instead, a quintet of Aussies playing friendly electronic pop.For Your Comfort and Safety is CSW’s 2008 full-length debut. Its reissue capitalizes on the band’s music being included on episodes of The Ghost Whisperer and Keeping Up With The Kardashians, and the song “Come To Nothing” featuring in a recent Tic Tac ad campaign. “Come To Nothing” is miles from the banal fodder its Madison Avenue placement suggests. It’s a knowing examination of the ennui underpinning casual sex, anchored by Alyssa Doe’s girlish but confident vocals. The album’s opening track “Smooth” is atmospheric chill out pop of the first order, while “Low Rise” dabbles in gentle funk and the title track, flirting with acoustic pop/folk, offers this reassuring nugget: “If you don’t want to be alone, there is always somewhere to go”. Throughout For Your Comfort and Safety, Car Stereo Wars exercises subtle charms and proves to be much more than sonic wallpaper for breath mint adverts.