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The Westward Trail is two young, earnest-seeming fellows from Boston, and on this debut 4-song EP they serve up some laptop-driven, retro-sounding electro-pop, with keyboards aplenty, dancey drum-machine beats, and driving guitar. The songwriting is very good, and there are really strong vocal harmonies throughout. This stuff wouldn't be out of place on the Teenbeat label (if you're listening, Mark Robinson). One kind of refreshing thing about these guys is that their vintage-80s sound isn't wink-wink ironic, nor is it just a fashion stance (the boys look more like emo nerds in their photos, even wearing complimentary argyle sweaters, for crying out loud). In fact, it might be completely accidental, since the only non-contemporary act in their list of self-professed influences is Talking Heads (which I totally don't hear—I would have guessed New Order). So that's nice. There's only one misstep out of these 4 songs: track 3, "Sign Here/Haunted Streets," unfortunately suffers from some cheesy lyrics. But the boys redeem themselves with the final track, "Recognition Systems," which is really a knockout. I'm definitely looking forward to more from these guys. (mike.09.05)
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