You and Your Perfect Life - Postcards From Hokuo

You and Your Perfect Life

Postcards From Hokuo
self-released; 2013

4.1 out of 5

By Matt Jensen

It not very often that you find a female whose voice seems conducive for pop music. Before I listened to the awesome new album Postcards From Hokuo by You and Your Perfect Life I felt like the vocalists from Deerhoof and Love is All were about as good as you can get. Well I have just added another one to the list.

You and Your Perfect Life are a two-piece group originally from Canada and Austria and they met while going to school in Stockholm, Sweden. They have since moved to Canada and Hong Kong but still work together. Thank goodness because on this album you have seven songs of near perfect bubble gum synth pop. The songs are so fun to listen to as the vocals are relaxing, cute and feminine. They have a symbiotic relationship with the music, which contains a lot of non-abrasive clean synths, acoustic guitars and piano. Behind this great tone they create, they still have to be able to write well-crafted songs as well. Well, they don’t disappoint here either. They have got the whole package going for them.

The album starts with the quirky, energized “Zooey’s Holiday.”  The vocals are the center attraction as they carry the most infectious melodies in the song. Another thing that makes this song entertaining is that they tweak the vocals throughout the song but ever so subtly. For instance, the main verse has just a dose of reverb but during the bridge they layer different effects to give the song a sense of change.  Just as infectious is the second song “Real Time Fiction,” which on top of the near perfect vocal melody makes great use of the guitar. There is a section around the one-minute mark that utilizes backwards effect with a clean guitar to create an inventive instrumental section,

The only criticism I have is that I wish there was more. The songs feel shorter then they are and left me yearning for more. All things aside you don't find a much better pop record than Postcards From Hokuo.

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