What We're Digging Right Now - Painted Palms

Simultaneously looking forward and back, Painted Palms' Forever encompasses the best of pop-rock past, present and future. With jangly guitars, whirling synths and the faraway vocals of Christopher Prudhomme, the album lifts the soul and the synapses. There's something vaguely Brian Wilson-esque about these gossamer compositions. Listen to the bedroom starkness of "Angels," and it's not hard to imagine the Beach Boy humming this along with "Don't Worry Baby." Prudhomme and his cousin Reese Donohue have a real gift for writing without restraint of era. They aren't afraid to let the machines win, either. The aptly titled "Hypnotic" flashes in and out with robotic horns, and the Broken Bells-like "Forever" rattles with subway noises. The synthetic and the serene live in harmony in the Painted Palms oeuvre.