Chapel Hill band Wembley mixes up a rousing blend of classically trained indie pop on its second EP, You Are Invisible. The band is composed of four musicians whose skills, when combined, create a synchronized effort that translates into four stimulating tracks.
The band relies more heavily on sound than vocalization to tell a story, but you’ll still hear occasional voices matching its lucent pop. The harmonious vocals of Elizabeth Hull and Neven J. Carswell parallel the band’s style of poetic, piano-driven felicity.
When the songs lack vocals for the first or last few minutes, the instruments waft the listener to a welcoming forest of weeping riffs and agrestal drums flooded with a glossy pop radiance.
The rest of the You Are Invisible EP embraces a cultured pop sound derived from the happy-go-lucky indie scene, but matured with orchestral instrumentation.
Smooth hi-hats and swanky guitars make “Bongo” a buoyant jaunt that lightens the mood while diversifying the already exceptional sound.
The art-rock arrangement of “(Did You Give Him His) Pills” sticks out like a sore thumb on the festive EP. The heavy sample pad beats, floating falsettos and rushing drums impart Radiohead experimentalism, not picturesque pop.
Wembley experiments with different sounds and capitalizes on each unique venture, a telling sign that this short EP isn’t the last we’ll see of the band.
