The key is escape. Osaka indie-pop outfit Pictured Resort probably wouldn’t object to getting a little bit of that “city pop revival” love, what with a debut album called All Vacation Long out in August. Yet the main vibe of the bands — fairly or not — being lumped in that revival is of being content, of chilling out with friends in the city or at your preferred clothing store. Which is fine for background lounging, but sometimes you want to dream of places far off, beyond city boundaries. “Away To Paradise” desires something more — fitting of a group bringing to mind Lake Heartbeat or a handful of other late-2000’s Swedish indie groups, “Away To Paradise” is fueled by pure longing, for love and something different. As breezy as the guitar solos can get and as sweet as those electronic splashes get, the song hides a more nervous side, driven home by those nearly sighed vocals. Sure, it has a vague tropical vibe, but there is nothing content about it. Funny enough, it might have more in common with ’80s city pop — a genre that, for all the glitz and excess, worked best as aural optimism, for something better — than a lot cribbing from the same time. Listen above.
