Mosquitos – Sunshine Barato

It’s hard to say which sounds more seductive: Juju Stulbach’s Brazilian lilt gently whisking the accumulated dust from your eardrums, or the lush percussion upon which she rolls so effortlessly. The Mosquitos play infectious bubblegum bossa/samba music, with enough indie-pop backbone to keep the mix catchy. Their debut landed them an opening slot with Air, and while Sunshine Barato never strays far from the group’s established formula, it augments their sound with tighter hooks, looser strumming and leggier rhythms. As with any simple pleasure, the flaws are obvious. Stulbach’s breathy voice needs a male partner for ballast, but Chris Root ain’t it: his range peaks at a nerdy whine that all but invites you to kick sand in his face (though, to be fair, he may yet grow up to sound like Wayne Coyne). The lyrics are no smarter than need be when your subject involves hitting the beach and rubbing bathing suits together, but these songs breeze by in a catchy, barely-differentiated blur. Still, their unstoppable dedication to sunny waterside good times never fails to satisfy: on the closer, “27 Degrees,” they refuse to go home even when the temperature drops, assuring us they won’t desert the beach even after summer’s history.