No Kids feature three members of Vancouver’s P:ano, and the lo-fi indie-pop songs on their debut album are fairly indistinguishable in tone and execution to those on their previous band’s three full-lengths. While the strings/ horns/piano, vocal harmonies, and kitchen-sink arrangements channel Brian Wilson and Architecture in Helsinki (as on the bouncy single “For Halloween”), the album’s mood drifts between melancholic whimsy and muted geniality, like a Tickle Me Elmo doll losing its juice. Music this insistently okay could suffice as sonic Paxil, but there are less complicated ways to treat your depression.
