New Releases: The Salt Collective

Been on a bit of a shopping spree lately. Here's another new-ish one I'm enjoying: Life by indie pop supergroup The Salt Collective. Parisian band Salt released their debut, The Loneliness of Clouds, in 2019, and it was pretty interesting, some intriguingly skewed jangle pop with unpredictable yet still catchy hooks, though I found the vocalist to be a bit of an acquired taste. The band addresses that one drawback by adding a who's-who of indie pop legends under the Salt Collective umbrella, including all four dB's--more than anything, this sounds like a great lost dB's record--as well as Juliana Hatfield, Matthew Sweet, Matthew Caws (of Nada Surf), Mitch Easter, guitarist Richard Lloyd, and more. 

There's still a skewed sense of weirdness to the songs, but the hooks are there, and it's well-performed and plenty varied. (Album closer "Making It Up As We Go Along" is alone something lovers of 90s-styled indie power pop will need to check out.) Buy it on Bandcamp.