Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Let It Sway

In the clogged-up world of potential Shins-esque, indie-crossover bands, a daft name will at least get you noticed. Crisp, summery upbeat tunes won’t go amiss either. Missouri’s Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin excel at the former, make a gutsy stab at the latter and pray for Natalie Portman to lip-sync to them with third album Let It Sway. Death Cab For Cutie’s Chris Walla keeps the production clean and frills-free, letting SSLYBY endorse an almost unremitting wave of florid, feel good beach pop strumming.

Like a breath of fresh air, tracks like Back In The Saddle or the anthemic Banned (By The Man) are invigorating blasts of pretension-free, spirit lifting frivolity in a sometimes turgid world of chin-stroking beats and dirgey guitars. Yeah, you may feel a little embarrassed if a couple of trend-setting mates drop by mid-listen, but that’ll say more about you than the Yeltsins. [Darren Carle]