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Reptile Youth made their initial name strictly through live performances and social media only after their formation in 2009, though any thoughts that they might go the Screamers route to relative fame ended when they finally debuted studio work in 2012, building up to their first full album. Still, there's also something settled in the past about the Danish team's work, not just because it almost seems like they're the lost answer to whatever happened to Junior Senior -- the fact that they called a song "Be My Yoko Ono" is bemusing enough, though it turns out not to be a Barenaked Ladies cover but a distinctly LCD Soundsystem-ish duet with the singer from Nelson Can. Meanwhile, emo-yelp post-punk dance-rock seems like something from 2002 rather then 2012, but "Black Swan Born White" turns out to be halfway between that and more recent anthemic indie rock down to the cheap keyboards. Smooth singing on the break of "Morning Sun" as well as hyperactive keyboards bring it into more of a general indie realm of merriment, something "Shooting Up Sunshine" sends even further over the top. If this all means that indie dance has finally found its equivalent to the jam bands that are beloved by audiences but not necessarily clicking in studio to the full, perhaps it's not surprising in the end. ~ Ned Raggett
