Black Apples 7-inch released August 2012. Includes “Cover Up” and “Morning Song”
The fruit lands fast and terrifically on Black Apples latest, cementing a fresh season for the Los Angeles-based four-piece. “Cover Up,” the first single off Black Apples newly released 7-inch, gives the upper bunk to felt pop rock and permits the inevitable climb of restless garage clamor creating coiffed jubilance ready for affecting. Clear pop construction sparkles behind sheer, peeling crests of fuzzed guitar, surefooted percussion, tinkling bells, and masquerading, layered vocals enshrined in mixed emotional melodies spilling and containing joy and detachment.
It’s the collision of musical languages that proves interesting—for every familiar structural turn, there is an equally surprising level of instrumentation. The rock ‘n’ roll mystique is present but the sound blooms into something more. Where “Cover Up” gets cool, it warms just as readily under the resting, beating heart of its folk-rock landscape. Even its leanings toward the expanding embers of psychedelia are harnessed by the tapered folk-drenched guitar that laces and backbones the song. The panging sitar trembles and leans into Scarborough’s outcry whose cadence possesses an impassioned indifference recalling Daniel Rossen, while his nasal-glam intonation reflects an “I’m Only Sleeping”-era John Lennon.
Black Apples control “Cover Up” without suffocating the fun. Its invigorating sing-along chorus is genuinely felt, and keeps anything from getting too calculated. “Cover Up” is something familiar, but it is something true.
Black Apples
Photos taken from musio.com and bandcamp.com
