Pale Sunday: The Fake Stories About You and Me EP

If nothing else, the EP The Fake Stories About You and Me by the Brazilian indie pop group Pale Sunday is a resounding statement of how far indie music has spanned globally. American indie has gone all sorts of different directions in the past few years, but Pale Sunday play indie as the average passerby would tell you it is: a precocious mood, clean guitar tones, and a kind of coffeeshop friendliness that avoids getting too close to universal appeal. The band does this remarkably well; however, this unfortunately means that The Fake Stories About You and Me, from an American perspective, is far too familiar a release, and to label it anything beyond “high-quality background noise” is difficult. The component parts of this EP are solid: the vocal harmonies are affable and well-executed enough to elicit a Brian Wilson comparison, and about half of these four tracks are catchy enough so as to not be entirely forgettable. But given how little material there is here — at twelve minutes, it’s a trifle of an EP — as well as how generic the songwriting is, there isn’t a whole lot working in Pale Sunday’s favor.