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Review: Phantogram, ‘Eyelid Movies’

8
SPIN Rating: 8 of 10
Release Date: February 09, 2010
Label: Barsuk

Often gorgeous and never soothing, the damaged pop on Phantogram’s mesmerizing debut is pure nightmare fuel. Meshing grubby synths, shimmering guitars, and fractured funk beats, upstate New Yorkers Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter suggest an ’80s new-wave band gone horribly wrong, their uneasy voices ranging from muted disappointment to fearful agitation. In kinder hands, “As Far as I Can See” might become an elegant R&B anthem, but the wistful “All Dried Up” is straight-up desperate isolation, and the shivery “Running From the Cops” feels just plain creepy.