Pitchfork

Let's not ignore the Elephant 6 in the room: The 1900s sound like a bunch of other bands in your CD collection, exhibiting a predictable nostalgia for 1960s parlor pop in all its fussiness and perfectionism. So what makes this Chicago sextet (now an octet) any different from all the other likeminded bands out there? Judging from "Bring the Good Boys Home", off their debut EP Plume Delivery, the 1900s' chief distinguishing feature may be their collective gift for witty arrangements.

After a ho-hum intro that I keep mistaking for A.C. Newman whenever it comes up on my iPod, Caroline Donovan sings an undistinguished verse, but her vocals sound delectably dry over Michael Jasinski's organ. Then the band takes a detour into the song's hookiest section before launching unceremoniously into a lengthy, open instrumental that's part parlor jam and part plot twist. It's the tight and targeted arrangement of these individual sections, rather than the sections themselves, that gives "Bring the Good Boys Home" its hummability and sets the band apart, however superficially, from its contemporaries.