The Boat People – Chandeliers

Chandeliers – The Boat People

By Chris Peken

“You got a light of love / A shining, shinning light of love.” My aren’t these Brisbane boys a gleeful bunch. And indeed the wonderfully named Boat People (remember the campaign to have Queensland cut off from the rest of the country’) are the happiest of pop refugees from the camp that was founded by Stephen Malkmus and Pavement. Hours n Hours not only proves there is little to do in Bris-vegas other than write cute lil’ pop songs, but also that these Boat People owe their musical lives to their fore-bearers The Go-Betweens. Chandeliers indicates something bright and sparkley, something that shines and glimmers in the light – and is a more than fair metaphor for the musical tone on The Boat People’s second album. The crystal here is well polished by producer J. Walker (Machine Translations) without ever risking being ostentatious. I’m not sure this sort of pop will ever be hip (tragically or otherwise) but we can always hope.

*** 1/2