Kevin Bronson on August 15th, 2018

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If you could capture the spirit of Former Faces’ debut album on a T-shirt, it would read: Stay Calm and Enjoy the Colors.

“Foreign Nature,” out this week, is a true long-player — fueled by by persistent grooves and echoing with atmospherics, the album ebbs and flows with a celestial ambiance without succumbing to mere repetition or noodling. No surprise that main man Ryan Parmenter originally conceived and continues to treat Former Faces as an audio-visual project: “Foreign Nature’s” 10 songs constitute his ruminations writ large. For comparisons, contemporaries like Tame Impala and the War on Drugs come to mind, as do others (like, for instance, British Sea Power) who have tackled widescreen cinematic pop.

“Foreign Nature” turns on the track “Back Up a Minute,” originally released on 2017’s “Swimming in Circles” EP and, like two others, rearranged for the full-length. Here, Parmenter’s mellow should not be mistaken for melancholy. His is a measured optimism, at once intimate and majestic in the music’s painterly soundscapes. It’s spectacularly evocative, but as with the rest of the album, the only visuals you’ll need are already in your head. 

||| Stream: “Foreign Nature”

||| Live: Former Faces perform at 8 p.m. Saturday on the Buzz Bands LA stage in the Champagne Room at Taix as part of Echo Park Rising. It’s free.

||| Previously: “Swimming in Circles” EP, “Forc# Fi#lds,” “Foreign Nature” single, “Back Up a Minute”