headlights - "tokyo" (from the enemies ep, available for purchase here.)

in brief : just what did bill murray say to scarlett johansson at the end of lost in translation? headlights have ideas, and "a unique niche for themselves that falls nicely between my bloody valentine and the postal service," say the label. but is that a good idea?

headlights better enjoy their grace period while they can; perhaps they understand this, and thus the ep title. w/ clear influence drawn from two of the most overconsumed indie products of recent times, they can expect to catch hell shortly. w/ its stuttering drums, keyb squiggles, and boy / girl vocals, the music track of "tokyo" sounds something like an organic postal service record; the lyric, w/ lines such as "so many little red lights, it's so alive here," seems to have been written while in thrall to lost in translation.

somewhere, the arcade fire is breathing a sigh of relief.

BUT! it's naught to do w/ indietronica or pink wigs, really. it happily resists the temptation to reduce it to its constituent parts by being, well, v. unhappy. one could v. easily imagine that this is the music charlotte listens to as she sits on the window sill contemplating tokyo in its grandeur and immensity, and it becomes all the easier as the din of the guitars intensifies, approximating the tones of kevin shields found on the soundtrack. charlotte would perhaps have found greater solace in the refrain of "tokyo" than she did in those self-help tapes. "another broken heart," it goes, "another town you must take in stride."