Chime School

The minute this one came on the upcoming releases dock, it shot to the top of my anticipated releases for fall. Chime School’s debut was an instant classic, born of a love for jangle-pop and forged with a hand that knew just how to balance the melancholy with an indie-pop edge that left hooks ringing in the listeners’ ears for days. Andy Pastalaniec eases into the follow-up, an album that cuts cleaner, digs deeper, and feels like a natural extension of the debut without treading many of the same paths. That debut was pinned to the Sarah, Subway, Creation, and Sha La La catalogs — a dizzying collection that spun in the sun while letting a good dose of ennui lacquer the edges. There’s still a creeping shadow of that same set of influences, but on The Boy Who Ran The Paisley Hotel, Chime School doesn’t bask in the sun as often, sinking into the overcast corners of the indie ourvre.

Like fellow Bay Area contemporaries, The Reds, Pinks and Purples, Pastalaniec is exploring the deeper sighs set into the strata of strum as it hits in 2024. Much of the record shies away from easy comparisons, instead building up a cadre of hooks and heavy-hearted anthems that become etched into the current West Coast coffers rather than feeling like time-torn gems. “Wandering Song” is as infectious a single as he’s ever offered up, jangled and jostled, burrowing into the brain deeper each time it hits. Yet, it’s just as often the songs that aren’t as instantly infectious that seem to set the album apart. There’s a hint of Athens’ art smudges on “(I Hate) The Summer Sun,” a simmering catharsis under the eaves of “Points of Light” and a buoyant relief to “Words You Say.” Current climes fill the lungs with a strange gravity that comes in waves. The hammer gets closer every day, but it’s nice to have a beacon in the bile, something to salve a few emotional lacerations along the way.

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