Faded Paper Figures - Relics (2014)

Relics is the fourth release from nouveau synth-pop trip Faded Paper Figures, who have been doing their thing on record since 2008, when they released their debut album. Of equal interest, two of the band, singer/keyboardist Heather Alden is a doctor and is married to multi-instrumentalist Kael Alden; guitarist/singer R. John Williams is a professor at Yale (if that isn’t enough, he’s a published author). So it goes without saying, I expected this group to deliver “smart” music and dammit, they do.

The first single from the album, “Spare Me” is carried by Heather Alden’s alternately sweetly-lilting to sexy and enveloping with a catchy refrain and melody (who says synth pop can’t be warm and structured?) “Breathing” has a heavier feel (think very early Human League) and (dare I say) a retro sound with bleeps and sequences; “On The Line” is another single possibility – upbeat and poppy, circa ’81 (Speak and Spell-vibe perhaps?). There’s nothing I haven’t heard before, but Faded Paper Figures know how to write songs and prove as long as you can write a quality pop song, it doesn’t matter how it’s performed – they do the synth movement proud.