FOR MANY indie rock fanatics, the first 11 seconds of LVL UP’s new album, Return to Love, will sound startlingly familiar.
Opener “Hidden Driver” begins with a feverishly strummed acoustic guitar that’s ultra percussive and so distorted it sounds like it’s sizzling. It’s a sound that plenty of artists have used over the years, but LVL UP’s treatment immediately brings to mind ’90s folk rock heroes-turned-hermits Neutral Milk Hotel.
The second song on Return to Love, “Blur,” kicks off with a guitar lick that sounds inspired by Built to Spill. The third track, “She Sustains Us,” has the muffled, buzzy feel of the Microphones. “Spirit Was” warbles and chimes like Pavement. “Pain” sounds like... well, sort of like all of the above smashed into one song.