The Little Ones: Morning Tide

These Little Ones have some growing up to do

Dropped by Astralwerks, after having recorded only one EP last year, this LA-based band recently caught the attention of Chopshop Records with a winsome sunshine-y sound that often recalls ’70s-pop staples like The Raspberries, Big Star and Badfinger. But unlike their forebears, The Little Ones haven’t yet realized that the key to really good power-pop is to underpin it with a little darkness and angst, with some eccentric pathologies and intelligent narrative arcs. Instead it seems like The Little Ones found some of the Flaming Lips’ animal suits discarded in a dustbin, put them on, and spent the next 11 songs spinning relentlessly cheerful yarns that blur together like the lines of an epic poem—a cartoonish rock Iliad sung in freakish, sped-up unison. Creating a musical theme that stretches across the album isn’t a bad idea, but The Little Ones fail to pull it off, and the songs suffer from a frothy sameness.