Tanlines - Highlights (2015)

Highlights, the band’s first collection of new material since their critically-lauded debut, Mixed Emotions, in 2012, began in a basement in Pittsburgh and ended in a church in Brooklyn. It trades world music sounds for a more alive, realized approach, the result of Emm and Cohen knowing they wanted to break from their ‘two guys, one screen’ writing style. Influenced by their time spent on the road touring Mixed Emotions, primarily in the States, they reached for the sounds of 90’s New York hip-hop drums, Detroit techno synths, and lots and lots of guitars. The result could almost be called an homage to the sonics of America, if that sort of phrase wouldn’t make the band cringe. Instead, let’s just call Highlights “the album where things started making more sense.” Between working in Los Angeles with producer Patrick Ford, and their hometown of New York City with Chris Taylor (Grizzly Bear) in his 100 year-old church studio, they eventually settled on the ten songs that make up the record. Highlights is like a renaissance for a band that began in 2008 as a one-off remix project. The upbeat dancefloor-ready tracks are imbued with colors and emotional range that go much deeper than ever before, with Emm’s vocals and lyrics, at once personal and observational, taking center stage.