With their debut The Bird And The Bee’s Inara George and Greg Kurstin try to revive better, or at least different times. The most summery moments of The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds provides a heavy influence, as do The Carpenters and the Musak tones of 60’s bossa nova. It may sound like a good idea on paper but, wait, no it doesn’t, does it? In reality, it sounds exactly how you would expect, maybe even fear.

George and Kurstin have clearly put a great effort into defining their sound and this could have been a kitsch joy - the more dancey tracks like Fucking Boyfriend and I Hate Camera are the closest they get to really hitting on something good. The problem is that the sound seems to be much more important than the songs. To pull this off you’d need some classic pop songs, but often these aren’t even good pop songs, which makes listening to each finely crafted, impeccably produced note a real struggle.

Label: Regal
Website: www.thebirdandthebee.com
Release date: 26th March 2007

Tracklist:

1. Again & Again
2. Birds And The Bees
3. Fucking Boyfriend
4. I’m A Broken Heart
5. La La La
6. My Fair Lady
7. I Hate Camera
8. Because
9. Preparedness
10. Spark