Written by: Dave Cantrell

This rock music lark, I tell ya, it can seem a complicated beast, not least as it (just like, as some not insignificant coincidence would have it, the writer penning this missive) is staring at a conflagration of some seventy candles on its upcoming birthday cake on which the flames dally with a dancing impertinence one with the other with the other to the extent it becomes impossible to determine which plume of light comes from which source but of course A) in the end it doesn’t really matter, dazzle is dazzle after all, and B) it’s here our hardly clever metaphor falls a bit apart as there’s no way – nor any desire to – blow out our allegorical collection of twisted wax torches as it shimmer is not only far too grand to turn our attention from but as well it’s arguably the very source of our truest joy, grooving as we do at our most intuitive level to the flux and flow of influence as it guides still another artist/band/album to the very core of our always listening, always curious heart. Which brings us to, well, just about any album released over the last forty-plus (at least) years but most specifically for our purposes today, the lates – and exceedingly well-crafted – outing from Elephant 6 mainstays Giant Day.

Now, when any of our readership, unparalleled as they are in what one might call their indie/alt erudition, sees that E6 reference their minds flash instantly to Athens, GA, that teeming longstanding hotbed of intelligent, irresistibly catchy rock/pop/call-it-what-you-will where the whimsically-named label first emerged in the early 90s, their thought bubbles filling with a bustle of by-now-legendary artists such as Olivia Tremor Control, Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Elf Power, Beulah and on and on, all of them sharing an impeccable melodic instinct with such consistency that one has to wonder if maybe it’s something in the Athenian water. Whatever the magical/mystical source/sauce, it’s as clear here on Alarm as it was on their 2024 debut Glass Narcissus that Giant Day have been siphoning up a fair few fistfuls of that particularly sparkling Kool-Aid and re-sourcing it – with a deft aplomb, it should be said – for their own wily pop purposes.

Which makes more than a sort of sense seeing as the Giant Day duo consisting of Derek Almstead and Emily Growder both served significant time in those unique, semi-lysergic Elephant 6 pop trenches – he in OTC, EP, the Glands and Of Montreal, she in Marshmellow Coast and Faster Circuits – but even considering that fine brace of bona fides it’s nonetheless the case that this second outing doubly proves they belong in an unparalleled league of their own, one where crystalline melodies carve a sinuously dreamy path through rock solide structures that’ll stand any and all tests of time, a claim that will undoubtedly lead our readers to say something along the lines of ‘Oh, yeah, eternal pop craft, then?’ to which our only reply is ‘Oh yeah, yes, yes, YES!’ The evidence, after all, is everywhere. Witness…

…the brief punch and wow of opening track “Out of Hand” that comes out of the gate running, the beat transfixingly spry, the layering on of elements – bright ringing electric, sly parps of trumpet, a bass we’ll allow ourselves to describe as a ‘finely-drawn phat,’ Growden’s vox presiding over the lively proceedings with a kind of offhand mystique – locking the listener in for the distance, neither able nor willing to turn their ears away from an obvious gem. I mean, consider…

…”Golden Times,” following that first track, pulling in with the ease of the Cocteau Twins firing on every subtle cylinder; “Healthy Families Virginia,” for which, as it turns out, we’ve been reserving the phrase ‘the beauty of regret,’ Almstead at the mic this time, the sigh of his heart almost audible; “Key of Hearts” pulling pop somersaults even as the lyric essays a touch of elliptical sadness; the rueful buoyancy of the smartly-titled “Spite 28;” the sneakily pop-avant “Devil Dog,” its clipped duration a none-more-certain confirmation of this band’s chops (and just to be clear here, every aspect of Alarm‘s sonic footprint – the writing the playing the mixing and production, even the album’s visually arresting cover, courtesy Growden – is down to the duo themselves and you can’t really get more ‘indie’ than that); all the way to luminous closer “Good Neighbor” that manages to blend the trippy with the nimbly near-funky spry and yes we’ve left a few tracks out here for your own discovery but you get the drift, a drift that should with some haste carry you toward whatever outlet that feeds your music obsession.

And, okay, Reading back over what’s just been written I realize I might’ve been just as persuasive regarding this album’s merits had I simply written something along the lines of “like the intelligent, tousle-haired offspring of some minstrel-ly marriage of the Canterbury scene to the jangled Postcard faction of the early 80s but anchored with the decidedly incomparable pop nous Elephant 6 undercurrent” but in any case, you get the drift, the compelling, rather incomparable drift that leads you inexorably towards whatever outlet you favor to procure this gem.

Get Alarm here