On their first two EPs, 2003’s Orange and 2004’s All Songs Written By, HUMAN TELEVISION displayed enough frenetic, trip-and-be-trampled pop-hook zeal to run neck and neck with the Wedding Present circa George Best. Now the Philly-by-way-of-Florida quartet has rolled out their first full-length, Look at Who You’re Talking To (Gigantic Music), and while the songs are as catchy and jangly as ever, they’re also warmer and more diffuse. The tempos, driven by drummer (and Lilys member) Mario Lopez, have been pulled back a bit, bringing the songcraft of singer Billy Downing, whose sense of melody is one of the sharpest in indie pop, to the foreground more than ever before. On tunes like “Mars Red Rust” and “I Laughed” the band explores the sort of paisley spaces mapped out by the Rain Parade with all the soft melancholy of the Field Mice. –J. Niimi
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Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Isaac Haglof.
