New York man-poodle Darwin Smith is back with another album of tightly cropped guitar-pop earworms. ‘Songs For Imaginative People’, the second Darwin Deez record, is a natural progression from the first, as the band’s distinctively jangly, incessantly upbeat guitars are remodelled in increasingly eccentric ways. It indicates a confidence that’s best illustrated in the skittish new wave angularity of ‘(800) HUMAN’, the endearing bedroom power balladry of ‘Redshift’ and the almost authentic garage rock of ‘Free (The Editorial Me)’. For Smith, this album is another step towards cult credibility with real longevity. Now he just needs to sort out that hair-do.
Robert Cooke