Lion the Girl

iTunes Review

L.A.’s Midnight Movies deliver as their name suggests. There’s a nocturnal, film noir quality to much of their material and their second album, Lion the Girl, proves the band’s intriguing debut was no fluke. Aided by veteran producer Steve Fisk and new bassist Ryan Wood and drummer Sandra Vu, Midnight Movies veer from impressionistic tone poems to genuine, rainy day pop songs with equal grace and confidence, sprinkling on elements of the Velvet Underground, My Bloody Valentine and the entire Southern California Paisley Underground movement of the mid-‘80s. Singer Gena Olivier channels Petula Clark as she offers up a sensual innocence on the agreeably retro “Ribbons,” while recalling the somnambulant mystique of the Dream Syndicate’s Kendra Smith for the psychedelic shamanism of “Lion Song.” Larry Schemel’s wah-wah’d guitars embrace the transcendental mode, but can ratchet up to full power for the Sonic Youth/ Blonde Redhead outbursts that are held within context as the persistent buzz of “Coral Den” illustrates.