This sunny little indie-pop gem came to me completely and utterly out of the blue. Compared to Billy Bragg and Belle & Sebastian, what I hear more than anything else is Brendan Benson, although with some of the power take out of the pop and hugely satisfying sense of gentle contemplation filling the gaps.

This is by and large a really gorgeous record of perfectly assembled pop songs, and Aaron has interspersed the the roll-along country-tinged songs of Sunday afternoon bliss with some more bittersweet melodies of regret and disappointment which bring perfect balance to the album. A little like Benson himself it is easy to listen to this and dismiss it as just another album of hummable power pop, but that would be a mistake. Ultimately he isn’t breaking any musical boundaries, but he writes absolutely spot-on songs – perfectly paced, every one sticks in your head, and I could barely think of a bad time to listen to this.

It’s officially released some time in early September I think, but you can pre-order a copy here and I thoroughly recommend it. Honestly, there’s not a duff song on the whole thing, and it all hangs together perfectly. This is nothing that will shake the foundations of your universe, but I promise it will leave it a better place.

Aaron Schroeder – What We Don’t Know[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/AaronSchroeder-WhatWeDontKnow.mp3]
Aaron Schroeder – Emmylou[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/AaronSchroeder-Emmylou.mp3]

website | myspace | pre-order the album from his site (official release sometime in September)