Album: Bright Moments, Natives (Luaka Bop)

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Andy Gill Author Biography

Andy Gill

Andy Gill is The Independent's Music Critic.

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Saturday 19 May 2012

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Kelly Pratt, who to all intents and purposes is Bright Moments, has
in the past supplied horn parts to Arcade Fire, Beirut and LCD
Soundsystem.

His own art-pop project, however, suggests more of an affinity with protean oddball genius Sufjan Stevens – there's a similar bustling, multi-layered industry to the arrangements of tracks such as "Tourists" and "Travelers", and the way Pratt's high, fluting vocal rides the uplifting trumpets, synths and occasional huffing accordion, slipping so easily into falsetto, recalls Stevens' ingenious blending of the esoteric and the infectious. Echoes of Steve Reich, Fleetwood Mac and Love are discernible elsewhere in Natives' travel-themed song-cycle. An engagingly outré delight.

Download: Tourists; Travelers; Milwaukee Protocol; Behind the Gun; The Sailor

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