Warm Weather :: "The Dance"

Warm Weather are a Los Angeles group of recent college grads with an excellent debut EP, Dances. In the spirit of other esoteric, somewhat baroque pop acts like Vampire Weekend and fellow Angelinos, Princeton, Warm Weather drape swelling arrangements in layers of vocal harmonies and enough poly-rhythmic influences to make everyone have to use the proper noun, "Paul Simon". Lead track, "The Dance" very nearly explodes half a minute in with a cascade of backing harmonies, in essence a movement in three parts, this demarks the end of the of first and the beginning of the second. By the third, a roaring breakdown of so many individual vocal parts, the band is at the height of its power before an entirely satisfying resolution of a final chord. Fairly simple, these are the last collection of notes on the first song of one of the best debut EPs of the year.