Look Together

Album review

What happens when you take the indie out of indie pop? On their first two albums, Wild Moccasins delivered cool guitar-based music that suggested some lost new wave band of the mid-'80s with their sharp but catchy melodies, breathy harmonies, and plentiful six-string jangle. But on 2018's Look Together, the band has made some distinct stylistic changes: the guitars play a lesser role this time out; keyboards and electronic percussion give these performances a harder and glossier edge; and the overall feel suggests this band is dipping its toes into contemporary dance-pop, perhaps in a bid to leave the hipster underground behind in search of greater commercial success. That's not to say Wild Moccasins sound entirely different on this album. This band still knows how to write a great melody with plentiful hooks, and Zahira Gutierrez remains a first-rate vocal talent, with impressive ideas and the chops to pull them off as she does vocal acrobatics that suggest the missing link between Debbie Harry and Kate Bush. And if Wild Moccasins wanted to make a more mainstream sort of pop album, they've taken to it with ease and skill. Their chops are as strong as ever, if not stronger; the performances are tight verging on flawless; and producer Ben H. Allen III has spun their work into state-of-the-art ear candy circa 2018. (And tracks like "Shooting in the Dark" clearly reference classic disco, so they may have just traded one set of vintage influences for another.) For fans, Look Together may well be a "matter of taste" dividing line; as craft, it shows Wild Moccasins are growing stronger and more ambitious with each album, but it connects on a different level than the more organic and emotionally engaging approach of 2011's Skin Collision Past and 2014's 88 92. Like their earlier work, Look Together is clearly the work of a very talented pop band, but they're also a different pop band now, and while this will doubtless gain them new fans, a few of their followers might feel as if something got lost as they buffed some of the kinks out of their music.

© Mark Deming /TiVo