Pitchfork

I'll try to spare you too many belabored puns about how you don't have to beware "The Divides of March", or how with the promise of spring finally in air the idea of someday being able to take a dip in a pool-- Sound- or otherwise-- sounds pretty nice. The important thing is that New York's Soundpool play fragile, layered dream-pop that not only erases any memory of my previous sentence, it also makes it easier to overlook the fact that the quintet's sobriquet could just as easily, in another decade, have included a garden rather than a pool. While fellow Gotham denizens like A Place to Bury Strangers have approached the feedback-laden guitar music of the late 1980s from a thunderously noisy perspective, Soundpool splash in the gentler, more feminine waters of such other neighboring bands as Asobi Seksu. On Dichotomies + Dreamland's "The Divides of March", shoegazer-reflective guitar noise and vibrant synths wash over Kim Field's girlish voice, which whispers a melody reminiscent of French pop via Air or Stereolab. The lyrics apparently offer a sort of social commentary, but you can immerse yourself in the sound until well past the ides of March (sorry) without ever having to notice any of that. Sic semper fine dream-pop.