Though I would have never guessed it in a million years back in 2002, The Strokes have turned into a great little pot from which quality side projects have bloomed. First, Albert Hammond Jr turned his modest guitar work into two surprisingly catchy LPs, and now Fabrizio Moretti continues this wave of good faith by creating Little Joy [Myspace], a mish-mash of various easy-rock genres that creates a messy and fun record of songs that feel like they were recorded forty years ago.

Right out of the gate, Little Joy pleases with the single “Brand New Start,” which sounds like a Strokes song if they’d been raised in Memphis, slow and sentimental with that signature Hawaiian breeze Elvis and Belle and Sebastian utilized so well. From there, the record jaunts from acoustic, drunken rambling (“Play the Part”) to honey-sweet duets about the kind of love they just don’t make anymore (“Don’t Watch Me Dancing”). The best parts of the record are when they forget they aren’t an indie pop group from the the current era and break out the indoor dancing boots, like on the excellent Strokes-like “How to Hang a Warhol.”

If there’s fault in this incredibly cute collection of songs, it’s that I’m not sure Little Joy knows whether they want to act more like the Strokes or She & Him, another great duet band insisting on playing music their grandparents would write. Perhaps it’s best there’s a middle ground band there; I just hope there’s an audience that finds them.

“No One’s Better Sake” [mp3]

Last 5 posts by K Sawyer Paul

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