Little Joy--"Evaporar"

From Little Joy (Rough Trade: 2008)

I should hate this on principle. A side project initiated by Strokes drummer and Drew Barrymore Dump-ee Fab Moretti, a sometime Devendra Banhart collaborator named Binki Shapiro and a peripatetic Brazillian musician named Rodrigo Amarante.

Though I admit to enjoying the Strokes first record in those lazy, hazy post 9/11 days of 2001, Moretti has done little to endear himself to me since then, discounting his participation in the two sub-par follow-ups to “Is This It?” and regular appearances in the “Stars—They’re Just Like Us!” section in US Weekly. And anyone associated with hirsute warbler Banhart is naturally suspect to me (that includes Natalie Portman, by the way).

But the album isn’t bad. An easily digestible mix of indie pop and Bossa Nova, about the worst thing you can say about it is that it tonally resembles much of M.O.R indie rock these days—a little too precious, a little too harmless, a little too willing to charm the pants off a sorority girl in a Shins T-shirt. All that said, the last track, “Evaporar” is a lovely four minute field-trip to Bahia that comes off like a forgotten acoustic Joao Gilberto demo to remind you resident of the chilly Northern Hemisphere that it’s spring in Salvador.

Here's a little taste.