When I first heard of Peel, I thought that a band from Texas that chooses as its name the surname of such a typically British indie icon must have a very forced British sound. Another Five O'Clock Heroes, in other words. Well, no.
First track on the album, Oxford, (which featured on April's mixtape) reminded me of a fuzzed-up Big Audio Dynamite! Good start, in other words! This was just to get me off on the wrong foot, however, as the album then takes off on a zig-zag course of different styles. The only constants are a blending of sweet pop sensibility with jagged-edge noise, and incredible songwriting.
Other blogs have compared them favourably to such wildly differing bands as Pavement, Meat Puppets, Apples in Stereo and Belle and Sebastian, but I wouldn't take too much notice of this - you're much better off just having a listen yourself. And you're in luck - the nice people at Fanatic Promotions have made their entire album available to stream in very high quality here, and will let you download 2 of the tracks as MP3s:
Sliding Doors
Workers Wake Up
