Album Review: Outside by Tapes 'n Tapes

I talked about how Cage the Elephant was trying to blend a lot of different influences together to create some new sound.  They are in essence on the cutting edge of the indie rock scene.  Tapes 'n Tapes is also blending a lot of sounds from the past together, but instead of moving to the edge of the indie scene they seem to be placing themselves right at the heart of what the current indie sound is.  In fact if I was going to go back to 1986 and walk myself from The Cure, REM, The Smiths and others of the alternative scene up to today, I think I might pick Tapes 'n Tapes to represent how that sound lives on in indie rock today. 

To me this album is somewhere in between The Shins and Modest Mouse and though there isn't a song on this album that makes me want to play it over and over I find the album to be very appealing for how they have managed to bring to life all of these different voices of the past into a current representative sound. 

This is an album I would throw on my player just to listen to, though it would help if my mood was a bit dark, as alternative and indie stuff has always favored the darker side of our moods. 

Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 3 out of 5 stars for Pretty Good.