The Procession – ‘Musique Magnifique’ (Nude) Released 09/04/07

Ever wanted to be transported back to the 1960’s, hang out on the beach under a warm sun and spend your time listening to whimsical, melodic pop songs full of joy as the surf laps up at your feet? Well, LA-based indie-popsters The Procession’s first offering may just help you to do that, combining all that was blissful in that lost age and making a collection of sweet, fun tunes to soundtrack the summer you never had (because you weren’t born then).

Originally formed in 2003 from the high-school friendship of Michigan blood-brothers J. Paul Zawacki (vocals and piano) and John F. Schreffler (guitar and keys), they recorded a five track EP in their basement on an old eight-track machine. After relocating to LA in 2005 they added former Pure Reason Brit Greg Jong (bass) to the mix and set about writing pop songs conjuring up images of the songwriting and production of early Beatles, E.L.O., The Beach Boys, Squeeze, and even Weezer.

All these influences are strongly prevalent in their songs, in particular the Beach Boys giving the album a dreamy, laid-back feel like lying on a Californian beach watching the surf.

Forthcoming single ‘Major And Minor’ and ‘Don’t Let Go’ will look to tap into Weezer fans eager for new friends with their hook-heavy, garage guitars and geeky misunderstanding of the female species. Indeed, bittersweet relationships and romantic disillusion are recurrent themes here: missed opportunities to ‘make it’  while watching MTV (‘MTV Song (No Relation)’), losing the girl to indecision, (‘Living Alone’), the dream girl in the crowd (‘Sandra’), even if this does lead to a certain lyrical repetition.

The tinkling, metronomic piano of  ‘Don’t Hesitate’ makes a jolly application to join Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club and the yearning oohs of ‘I Want A Golden Light’ have a delightful melancholy charm. However, the undoubted highlight is saved till the end, with the spectacular fun of ‘Don’t You Wish’ and its grinning fantasies of ‘a multi-purpose drug to solve all of your problems’  encouraging us to run splashing into the blue singing ‘lalalalalalalalala!’

A genuinely charming, feel-good album.