“Warm Rising Sun“
from the album Auditorium
2008
iTunes
Radar Bros. last put out a record three years ago, and then, three years before that. Three records per decade is a too-leisurely pace for some (still waiting, Jeff Mangum), but just perfect for the Radar Bros.’ sweetly somnolent offerings. Yacht rock may not describe their sound, but the (lack of) attitude’s appropriate, and not just because one of their best songs is “Open Ocean Sailing.” The Southern California four-piece often sing about nature in soft-focus: breezes, islands, rivers, animals all figure prominently, while naturalistic brutality is filtered out.
So let’s talk about the weather. Radar Bros. deftly turn the prototypical dull topic into something near-dulcet. Singer Jim Putnam rattles off a paratactic list of what sounds like a pretty decent, uneventful life (“long days, better nights, moving on rough water”). The band’s warm, rising harmonies sweep the chorus toward, naturally, a “faraway island” that the song’s character dreams of. “Warm Rising Sun” is what remains of the pastoral — the Radar Bros. take us to a place where things are, you know, pretty good most of the time.