Neon Indian : Era Extraña

Neon Indian's Era Extraña is long overdue for a review (you can't blame me though, I hadn't started this blog until a couple months after this album came out).

Gaining popularity quickly, Neon Indian has released two albums since its conception in 2008 and toured with numerous acts, including Phoenix, Chromeo, and Sleigh Bells. The three bands I chose to mention were chosen for a reason. I personally view Neon Indian as a bit of a cross between all three. Here's a simple math equation for you to illustrate Neon Indian's style.

Neon Indian = synth(Phoenix) + attitude(Chromeo) + vocals(Sleigh Bells - Alexis Krauss' femininity)

Era Extraña is Spanish for "It was strange."
Probably the most literal
album title from an indie band in years.

For those of you who aren't good at math (or are good at math, but don't know how to read made-up equations), that means you take Phoenix's synth, Chromeo's attitude, and the vocal style, though male instead of female, of Sleigh Bells, mash it all up and you have yourself an Era Extraña.


The equation works.

Neon Indian is an eclectic and unique band--two words that are vastly overused in the music business, but are very much true in this case. Poppy synth is topped with a layer of creepy, dark vocals to create songs with a mixed message that confuses and excites.

The first single off the album, and by far the most popular song since the album's been released, is "Polish Girl." This is a great example of this confusion. The song begins, "oh, did Phoenix release a new album? I must have missed it," only to move on, "wait, is this being produced by MGMT?," and finally the vocals, "who is this?" and then you just give up and Google it.

It's a confusion, though, that you like and appreciate. It's exciting and scary at the same time. It's like eating something that tastes really good, but your mom won't tell you what it is. You're hesitant to dive in, but you can't stop and you're in too deep now. Okay, so it's a crummy metaphor, but it's the best I've got.

Some people label this music as chillwave or New Wave or noise pop or synthpop or dream pop or psychadelic pop or shoegaze or ambient or chillout or lo-fi or glo-fi or neo-psychadelia or space rock or just about any combination of the words wave, chill, synth, or gaze. I think that's stupid. Let's be honest. Nobody knows what the difference between any of these are, because there isn't one. All that work that goes into labeling this album, or genre for that matter, is wasting precious time that you could be listening to the album in the first place. So just forget about all that. If you really need a genre, flip a coin. I just did and I'm calling it "wavegaze." It's going to be a thing. Spread it around.

On second thought, I can't support that. So don't. And don't flip a coin either.

Listen to "Polish Girl" instead: