Wonderboy reveals the strong link at which British C-86-style indie pop meets jangly Australian indie pop; over eight lovely tracks, this antipodean three-piece repeatedly invokes the spirits of the Television Personalities, and, most strongly, the Pastels (singer Tim Best’s voice could quite easily be mistaken for Stephen Pastel’s). In fact, there’s something in the intimate production of Wonderboy that’s preferable to the occasionally slick ’80s work of the Television Personalities, and there’s a consistency to its songwriting that’s always been lacking in the Pastels’ — one is tempted to suggest that if Girl of the World amassed a larger and slightly more inventive body of work, they could very well outshine the brilliant work of both antecedents. – Nitsuh Abebe
more »