Review of Strangest Places

by Mark Fisher

Erie, PA (Lake Effect Hardcore baby!) based Telefonics are back with Strangest Places. While the band are still slightly undone sounding (always a good thing in my book), they manage to incorporate a lot more pop elements into this album and the result is pretty amazing. Normally I shiver when I resort to the word “pop” but this time I mean it in the best possible way. Honest.

As with their previous work, Strangest Places has an excellent sound where all the instruments (including the vocals) have an equal place within it. While this is what drew me to the band in the first place, this time a whole new dynamic is added in the songwriting department. The songs here are roughly a hundred times better than they were on Hip Flip Colours (and I liked those songs a whole bunch). Songs like “Satellite, “Cinema Poseur Photography,” and “I Tried” are absolutely brilliant indie pop songs, the latter of which reminds me a lot of the late, great Dakoda Motor Co. “Sweet Sweet Home” has an alt. country tinge to it that is so different from the rest of the album that it offers a depth that the last album simply didn’t have. Did I mention it’s a great song to boot? Well, it is…pardner.

Strangest Places is an album that is really easy to fall in love with. It’s got a very honest feel to it, the kind of feel that bands seem to have a hard time capturing these days. On the last album I thought Telefonics might be onto something and with this album I’m convinced that they could be the next big thing if the stars aligned just right (Which is 90% of the equation right?) If you enjoy not so smooth pop rock or quirky indie rock and you don’t know Telefonics then you suck. Oh, and I think calling the Beatles “just okay” is pretty generous.

Key Tracks: “Pop Song Reject,” “Sweet Sweet Home,” “Sattellite”