First there was a duo called Colorado Coronado, who seemed to fawn at the recorded output of Bradford Cox (Deerhunter/Atlas Sound) and set out to replicate it live, resulting in a few fantastic songs. At some point, their sound shifted from the ponderous to the ramshackle, as Colorado Coronado seemed to switch idols from Cox to Ariel Pink, LA’s most loveable weirdo. A name change soon followed, Colorado Coronado now going by the name Atlanta Girl. That project would release lovely little songs with fun little melodies…usually punctured by moments of sonic ugliness, shrieks or total freakouts of sound. It could be hit or miss, but few artists in Japan were as unpredictable and interesting as Atlanta Girl. And now Atlanta Girl has become Batman Winks, which is pretty much the same thing as Atlanta Girl. Except now comes “Strange Love,” which might be the most pop-friendly song to come from any of these artists yet…though still brace for some unsettling details.
This is just one of the strongest melodies to come from this camp yet. The vocals are still far from pretty – but dude is trying to sound catchy at least, even if he’s far from polished. Again, it’s very indebted to Ariel Pink. The strangeness comes in three places – first, there is some sampled dialogue acting as a bridge, which isn’t that nutty. Second, in the chorus, there are some jarring laser sounds. Third, the lyrics, which could be interpreted as a bit creepy (“and so I sneak up to you/from behind” made me do a double take and got me think if this was being a little too Ariel Pink-ish for its own good…giving Batman Winks benefit of the doubt here). But geez, the actual hop of this is great. Listen above.