Simple Sounds of the World

Person to Person - Foreign Born

David Byrne is the king of mixing elements of world music and generating expert skilled pop miracles. Foreign Born have taken the success of recent upstarts such as Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot to heart, embracing the sounds of African Pop music and reinterpreting it into their own. The difference and success here falls with the efforts of the band to hop around to more than one continent. Sounds come from South America, the islands and they mix healthy doses of folksy guitars to round it all out. At times they sound clean and tight like a post punk 80's collaboration; say Aha etc., and at times they dabble with the workings of something more accustomed to say String Cheese Incident. It actually sounds a whole heck of a lot better than I just described it.

The overall sound of the album does drone a tad and tracks wash into one another at times but it stands strong as a complete piece of work. Blood Oranges, the opening track is solid as are the first few songs, but when you reach Winter Games you realize this isn't just another indie band to toss into the mix as the decade ends. They are sincere contenders. Not bent on blowing you away with a single or riding the hottest trend, the skills displayed here indicate a band ready to ride it out for a while and win over fans one by one until the collective ear pays attention and recognizes how good this all is.

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