Kevin Bronson on May 12th, 2009

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The Faraway Places, “Out of the Rain, the Thunder & the Lightning” (Save It, May 12) – Power pop and summer seem to go together like Dodgers dogs and the crack of the bat … or cool drinks and shade trees … or like the boy-girl vocals delivered by Chris Colthart and Donna Coppola on this L.A. ensemble’s well-timed release. If the choruses don’t catch you – and they probably will – the iced-blended synth lines and day-after-a-razor guitars might. The Faraway Places’ sun-struck take on life’s little puzzlements shimmers somewhere between the Rentals and the Nuggets boxed sets – e.g., the stuttery “F.F.F.F. Fall Down” and its psyched-out couplet “I have explosions / where I used to have eyes” – and if you’re a sucker for songs that could make that ’60s or ’70s AM radio playlist in your iPod, “Out of the Rain” is for you. Recommended.

||| Download (previously posted): “The Sun Goes West”

||| Live: The Faraway Places celebrate their album release with a show tonight at the Echo