The Postmarks: Memoirs At The End Of The World
Miami’s Postmarks trade, at least partly, on atmosphere: twangy surf guitars, rumbling tympani overdubs, spy-flick strings, Tim Yehezkely’s calm, unfettered croon. Memoirs At The End Of The World, the band’s third album and second of originals (2008’s By The Numbers was all covers), is its most obviously assured: Yehezkely and her bandmates have crafted their moodiest, sturdiest arrangements yet, and the results sound sumptuous, from the wah-wah guitar, loose-limbed beat, and swept-away strings and horns of “The Girl From Algenib” to the John Barry-esque quasi-movie-music of “Theme From ‘Memoirs’” and “Run Away Love.” But for all of its cool envelopment, The Postmarks’ sound doesn’t have much going on under the surface. Yehezkely’s vocals have a kind of blankness that isn’t eerie so much as inert and overly prim, and the tunes pretty much slide right past, neither offering potent detail nor giving their smoky richness a different or intriguing angle. Much of Memoirs seems familiar even on first listen; it’s all been done better before.