Son Ambulance

'Someone Else's Déjá Vu'

Lavish, expensive '70s rock reprised as artsy indie craftiness.

Spin Rating7 of 10

If the ultra-lo-fi shitgaze genre (Pink Reason, Times New Viking) represents one extreme of indie pop, Son Ambulance clearly represents the other. Omaha-based multi-instrumentalist Joe Knapp spent three years making Someone Else's Déjà Vu, and the album is another reminder that lush studio-reliant soft and prog rock of the late '70s can still offer legitimate inspiration. For example, towering highlight "Legend of Lizeth" is updated Lindsey Buckingham circa Tusk tinged with Animals-era Pink Floyd, and it's the first of many tracks (like "Wild Roses" and "Yesterday Morning") that sound as if they took three years each to write and record.

By Andrew Earles

1 Van Halen 'A Different Kind of Truth'
2 Lana Del Rey 'Born to Die'
3 Cloud Nothings 'Attack on Memory'
4 Himanshu 'Nehru Jackets'
5 Kathleen Edwards 'Voyageur'
6 Imperial Teen 'Feel the Sound'
7 Leonard Cohen 'Old Ideas'
8 Skrillex 'Bangarang'
9 Escort 'Escort'
10 First Aid Kit 'The Lion's Roar'

1 Cloud Nothings 'Attack on Memory'
2 Cloud Nothings 'Attack on Memory'
3 Kathleen Edwards 'Voyageur'
4 The Mark Lanegan Band 'Blues Funeral'
5 The Mark Lanegan Band 'Blues Funeral'
6 Leonard Cohen 'Old Ideas'
7 Escort 'Escort'
8 Escort 'Escort'
9 Escort 'Escort'
10 Himanshu 'Nehru Jackets'

Son Ambulance

'Someone Else's Déjá Vu'

The Mark Lanegan Band 'Blues Funeral'

Of Montreal 'Paralytic Stalks'

Van Halen 'A Different Kind of Truth'

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