Album Review: Pure Bathing Culture

Moon Tides (Partisan)

By MATTHEW SINGER

All there is to know about Pure Bathing Culture is contained in "Pendulum," the track that opens the duo's debut full-length. A heartthrob drum-machine pattern introduces Daniel Hindman's glistening, heavily chorused guitar, with singer-keyboardist Sarah Versprille's synth-hums and New Age-y lyrics (something about pentacles and fortune tellers and blue wood) passing through it like sunlight through swaying blinds, leading to a swooning, cloud-bursting chorus. It's one of the best Portland singles of the year, and every song that follows on Moon Tides is a variant of it, with slight tints in mood: a tad more downcast on "Twins" and "Seven to One," a bit sprightlier on "Only Lonely Lovers," a sprig more enigmatic on "Temples of the Moon." It can get repetitious, but it's like peering at the ocean at sunset: Do you really ever want the view to change?

HEAR IT: Moon Tides is out Tuesday, Aug. 20.


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