Joy Zipper American Whip LP (Blue Vinyl)

American Whip is the second album by the New York dream-pop duo Joy Zipper, released in 2003. Praised for its "charming melodies, heart-melting harmonies and hazy lo-fi guitars" forming "an intoxicating alt-pop nectar" the album contains 12 of the most seductive four-minute tracks you'll hear on one album.

Joy Zipper's second album American Whip is as sun-kissed and blissful as their first. Which is to say very much so. Sort of like a sunny take on the Jesus and Mary Chain circa Darklands, the band works the same straightforward noise-dipped-in-honey-approach as the JAMC. Only instead of Jim and William Reid's sneers, we get Vincent Cafiso and Tabitha Tindale's sweet as sugar vocals and harmonies. The catch is that the candy is a cover for the dark and gloomy subject matter of the lyrics. You may never hear bubblier songs about drug use, dying, Alzheimer's, feeling like a mannequin and madness. Whether this is a good thing depends on how you like your lyrics. Some may find the content a bit jarring. If you can hack it, though, this is a solid indie pop record....plenty of melody, harmony and hooks.