Album Review: TEEN - In Limbo

Better, the opening track to Brooklyn band TEEN's debut record In Limbo, is a strong signal of intent; a lush synth and drums-driven loop that works to hypnotise as Teeny Lieberson chants defiantly “I'll do it better/Better than anybody else”. Formerly on the keys for Here We Go Magic, Lieberson has formed with sisters Katherine and Lizzy, alongside friends Jane Herships and Maia Ibar, and created a unit that revel in euphoria and exploration that brims with joyous confidence whilst not being afraid to venture into experimental territory.

The girls have crafted in an album that straddles the dream pop aesthetic, yet infuses it with urgency and seductive intent. Charlie simmers away, Lieberson's vocals calling plaintively across the star-spangled ether like a siren, before the song ends in a sonorous drive into the sunset. Electric lurks on the edges of reason, an intoxicating marriage of Peaches and the dark reaches of post-punk Blondie, and as ardency palpable. The woozy sweep of Huh, the electric itch of Sleep In Noise, the sexual '60s shimmy of Come Back – all are imbued with a rich tapestry of layered sound, a constant sonic richness that forcibly unseats the listener and drags them into the girls' world of dark revelry. And for the most part it works; the dreamscapes are wholly realised, the harmonies bewitching, the musicianship meticulously considered. At times tracks meander, but such is the trappings of sojourns into sonic discovery.

Closing with the slow yet effervescent Fire, TEEN show that living in their psych and New Wave-inflected world is heavenly.