Suckers: Suckers EP

Suckers and Girls may be this year’s Yeasayer and MGMT. Two young groups with only a few songs released each, Suckers and Girls have each generated a fair amount of interest in as-yet-announced long-players. What makes both groups exciting, apart from a couple of killer singles (“Hellhole Ratrace”, “It Gets Your Body Movin’”) is their patience. Though Suckers is cut from a familiar Brooklyn psych-indie mould that incorporates shouty vocals, electronic instrumentation, and free-flowing structures, the group’s obviously enamoured of the easy beauty of long melodic lines, off-center horns, and singing, all together, in a slow-motion sort of celebration. Oh, and their melodies seem to be all somehow brilliant sing-a-long anthems.

The vocalist, Quinn Walker, must have grown up listening to David Byrne, to Talking Heads; but his self-introduction on Suckers EP is impressive in its breadth. With hardly an effort he slides from hung-over slur to carefree exuberance. You can’t help but be buoyed up with him.

Each of the four tracks on Suckers EP have a similar anthemic quality, but importantly, hint at other directions that the group could explore on a full length album. The opening of “Afterthoughts & TV”, reluctantly dragged-through-mud with an Animal Collective-esque electronic warble: a killer ballad. “Easy Chairs”’ plodding bass-line: pop radio nostalgia. The rickety change-ups of instrumentation on “Beach Queen”: a curious, interest-sparking knack for sniffing out novelty.

And we haven’t even touched on the group’s most fully realized song, “It Gets Your Body Movin’”, which closes Suckers EP. Not just that song, but the whole EP deserves a close listen — this is a first impression that only whets appetite for what’s to come. Pay careful attention.