Such Fun (2008)

There's plenty to like about this North Carolina six-piece — pretty piano melodies; impeccably layered instrumentation; singer Adam Baker's gentle, expressive vocals — but, unfortunately, not a ton to love. Annuals seem to pull so heavily from the Indie Rock 101 syllabus (see: the Shins, Arcade Fire) that their own identity gets lost in a wash of perfectly capable songcraft. While it has several nice moments of sprawling countryfolk fervor, a more accurate title for Such Fun might have been Not Bad. B
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