The difference between Sweet Trip's Velocity:Design:Comfort and You Will Never Know Why is reflected in the time between the two releases. Velocity:Design:Comfort, released in 2003, seems like a breakbeat mish-mash of weird noises and fuzz, with the occasional vocal interjection or chord change. You Will Never Know Why, released in 2009, is different entirely.
Sweet Trip's third release, and their first in 6 years, puts them strongly in the growing litany of artists combining shoegaze/dream pop and the new 8-bit/electronica trends from 2008 and 2009. Similar to artists like The Depreciation Guild and Maddest Kings Alive, Sweet Trip use dream pop vocals with the textural manipulations of shoegaze, while relying strongly on low-bit synthesizers and drum machines. The simplicity of the synthesizers heavily compliments the guitar lines and interplay between Sweet Trip's vocalists, Roby Burgos and Valerie Cooper, the latter of which could be compared to Régine Chassagne of Arcade Fire, or Bliss Blood of Pain Teens and The Angels of Light.
What's so attractive about You Will Never Know Why is how thoroughly it fleshes out Roby Burgos' imagination; a staggering array of different patches and melodies, arranged for maximum effect, often juxtaposed directly to the quirky cynicism of Sweet Trip's lyrics. "You will drift away / and I would mind / Here's to you," Valerie sings, against an increasingly swaying chorus of guitars and synthesizers. The beauty of each line and note is amplified by the way in which the two compliment each other, and the way in which the interplay between the male and female vocals is manipulated. The complexity of each of these interactions gives You Will Never Know Why an enormous density and replay value; almost a year after picking this album up, I'm still finding new things to like about it.
Get it in FLAC here.
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