New Music: Au: "Sum" [Stream]
It's likely that Portland's Au took their name from the chemical symbol for gold, and their sound is appropriately shiny-- "Sum" maintains a rich, sparkling resonance for its duration, like a piano with its sustain pedal nailed to the floor. Or maybe it's an abbreviation for "astronomical unit," an approximate distance between the earth and the sun, which is a span that Au traverses in this song. Rumbling percussion and pealing bells count down to liftoff, a bright ukulele jangle and Zoë Wright's cooing vocals send it on its interstellar way, and as it breaches the upper atmosphere, it explodes into a fountain of solar sparks. Au + "Sum" = "awesome," even though its saturated shimmer borders on Animal Collective-lite.