I know, I’ve owed this one to you, my readers, for a few months now. The plan originally was to concoct a sort of mid-year recap of the first half, dictating a slew of wonderful albums that may or may not come to find a spot on the inevitable end-of-year list. A hint at what may come. But that didn’t happen. I added a few hobbies to my seemingly never ending list of things that eat away at my time (see above photo) and it fell …

When I first checked out Netherfriends last year, I may have noted that they reminded me a bit of Animal Collective. That, maybe, and perhaps The Dodos. But, in actuality, they’re somewhere between. Gone are AC’s tribal shrieks and gone are The Dodos’ acoustic strums. When it comes down to it, Netherfriends really are their own beast. They may fit that same string of genres — folk, pop, experimental, psychedelic, and eccentric as all hell, to name a few — but their sound is really …

Boy do I love fun pop, and Calling You Out by Netherfriends fits the description perfectly. You can tell just by looking at the album art, among my favorites of the year. There’s a lot more going on here than just pop, though, as the eclectic percussion on tracks like “Nunya” and “Oh-Hi-Oh”, along with the supreme guitar accompaniment and tribal-esque vocals, are on par with groups like Panda Bear and, even more so, The Dodos. However, at times the similarities are almost too much.