"With a voice that wavers between Jane Birkin's and Neil Young's, Swede Sarah Assbring, or El Perro del Mar as she calls herself, writes of hope and loneliness, sometimes at the same time. Cleary influenced by Burt Bacharach and Phil Spector, El Perro del Mar sings a kind of indie doo wop, bringing together syllabic backing harmonies ("sha-la-la-la," "shooby doo-wop bah," and "be-bop a loo-lah" are some of the phrases she uses throughout the album), poppy melodies, simple vocal lines, acoustic guitars, and twinkling pianos on her self-titled full-length. But despite these brighter, happier elements that envelop her music, Assbring has a kind of despair in her voice that veils even the most cheerful of her songs in sadness. "It's All Good," in which she echoes variations of "it's all good, take a new road and never look back" throughout the entire piece, even in its optimism, conveys the sense that at one point things in fact were not good at all, even though they might be changing, and the breezy warmth of "God Knows (You Gotta Give to Get)" is more of a criticism of herself for "taking a lot without giving back" than advice regarding the benefits of altruism."
"Plastic Flowers is the solo project of George Samaras, a Greek-born producer, multi-instrumentalist, and dream pop artist based in London, UK. His music blends shoegaze, vaporwave, and lo-fi aesthetics, often drawing influences from 90s indie pop and contemporary dream pop acts like Deerhunter or My Bloody Valentine. The band/project started as a bedroom pop endeavor during his college years, evolving into full-length albums praised for their analog warmth and emotional depth."How Can I" is a track from Plastic Flowers' third full-length album, Absent Forever, released on November 10, 2017, via The Native Sound label. The album was recorded onto tape between April and July 2017 in London, amid Samaras' PhD workload, and features collaborations with a string quartet, his former bandmate Angelos Paschalidis on bass for one track, and drummer Nikos Panaroudis. It captures a shift toward richer, tape-recorded soundscapes, with themes of absence, longing, and introspection."
"The following song, Sweet Arcadia, is the masterpiece. It starts in familiar territory, Sarah narrating a train journey, just as she has on Saint Etienne songs in the past. But this one turns from idyllic catalogue to Wicker Man style threat, the sweet arcadia no longer sounding like the cosy nooks and havens of the lyrics, but instead falling into a spiralling hell of proggy, intoxicated keyboards. Sarah's voice is threatening, the music is anxious and seductive all at the same time. Like a 1970s made for TV ghost story, or Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World come to marvel at the self build homes of Essex and Lewisham. Angel of Woodhatch, the final melody, is a folksy, chiming lament, an arts and crafts folly that would fit nicey into John Betjeman's Metroland."
