Velocity of Sound, Apples in Stereo, 2002
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
I like the Apples a good bit, and I think their best album is A Discovery of a World Inside the Moone. In comparison, this album has much more fuzzy, buzzy guitar and rapid tempo. The vocals are rapid-fire and high pitched. While this is a rollicking albeit unadventurous good time, all the songs are pretty much the same, with the variation mostly being in the level of distortion ("I Want" being fuzzed to the max). It's nice, but it's more background fuzz than a melody to catch and enjoy. Although the bonus track, "She's Telling Lies," is basically a Beach Boys song written for fuzzy guitars. Favorite tracks: "Baroque" with its "ba ba ba" harmony, "Better Days" with its noodling, wavy organ lines, "Rainfall" with its nearly punk beat.
