Pitchfork

Brooklyn foursome Akron/Family made an awkwardly punctuated name for themselves two years ago with the folk-tinged lo-fi of their self-titled debut, and since then they've tried just about everything but return to that sound. On a 2005 split EP with label chief Michael Gira's Angels of Light, their 2006 album Meek Warrior, and the forthcoming Love Is Simple (plus as backing band on Angels' latest, We Are Him) have explored Animal Collective group chants, psych-folk riffage, cataclysmic noise, chamber-pop, and even, in the words of Pitchfork's Sam Ubl, "at least one surprisingly adroit hip-hop beat."

Love Is Simple's "Don't Be Afraid, You're Already Dead" may be as close as Akron/Family get to the gold soundz. Glockenspiels chime beneath verdant electric guitar riffs as Ryan Vanderhoof gently sings the album's title phrase, for an effect something like a Magic Numbers-Bonnie Prince collab. The rest of the band provides harmonies on the refrains, and though near the end this backwoods-via-Brooklyn chorale reaches a joyous crescendo, it never turns to weird-Americana yawping. The song used to be called just "Love Is Simple", and the reasons for its change are unclear. Love is death? Don't fear the reaper.

[from Love Is Simple; due 09/10/07 on Young God]