ow sweet it is! While The Apples In Stereo have never really been consistent with their candy-cane, sweet music, they have had their share of shining moments (although not early on with terrible recordings like Science Faire, which was completely unlistenable). 1998’s Tone Soul Evolution and 2000’s The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone were both chirpy and wonderful, but the best moment in their career arrives now (that is, if you don’t count the comical Powerpuff Girls contribution “Signal In The Sky”).

I can’t honestly say that I’ve followed every single moment of their career, but what comes out of Velocity of Sound is new to me. When I hear it, I wonder why they never sounded this good before. Gone are the 60s overtones, replaced with something noisier and even more melodic. One reason behind this change might be the fact that they have apparently never brought in an engineer to mix their songs until this recording. Bryce Goggin, who has worked with Pavement, Sebadoh, and Ramones, was their pick and, quite obviously, they couldn’t have done much better.

While it was still produced by lead Apple Robert Schneider, Velocity is one massive dose of extremely fuzzed-out pop. In the span of 28 short minutes, t

How sweet it is! While The Apples In Stereo have never really been consistent with their candy-cane, sweet music, they have had their share of shining moments (although not early on with terrible recordings like Science Faire, which was completely unlistenable). 1998’s Tone Soul Evolution and 2000’s The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone were both chirpy and wonderful, but the best moment in their career arrives now (that is, if you don’t count the comical Powerpuff Girls contribution “Signal In The Sky”).

I can’t honestly say that I’ve followed every single moment of their career, but what comes out of Velocity of Sound is new to me. When I hear it, I wonder why they never sounded this good before. Gone are the 60s overtones, replaced with something noisier and even more melodic. One reason behind this change might be the fact that they have apparently never brought in an engineer to mix their songs until this recording. Bryce Goggin, who has worked with Pavement, Sebadoh, and Ramones, was their pick and, quite obviously, they couldn’t have done much better.

While it was still produced by lead Apple Robert Schneider, Velocity is one massive dose of extremely fuzzed-out pop. In the span of 28 short minutes, the band races through 10 songs that are all maddeningly pleasant-sounding. Schneider has even raised the volume of his voice to a muffled bubblegum screech, and Hilarie Sidney sounds even better than him, with a touch of can’t-be-bothered in her attitude filled lungs. It’s too bad she wasn’t used more, because she’s a gem.

The Elephant 6 crew seems to have floated off into obscurity after a few years of riding high. With Neutral Milk Hotel and The Olivia Tremor Control (the collective’s two best and most consistently enjoyable bands) on some kind of unfortunate hiatus, Beulah and Elf Power both bombing with their last albums and, well, whoever else doing whatever else, The Apples seem to be the only ones worth giving a shit about right now. Velocity is definitely something to get excited about, especially because it makes this band sound even more like the rest of their peers.

There is also a nice bonus to the European edition of the album, with an eleventh track not available on the North American version. “She’s Telling Lies” is a great tribute to the early Beach Boys cruising songs, complete with an all-boy cheering squad on backing vocals.