I have a problem. Let me explain.

Au Revoir Simone’s “Shadows” presented by David Lynch Foundation Television

Au Revoir Simone have released the debut music video, “Shadows,” from their forthcoming album, “Still Night, Still Light.” Yet again, the music is warm and wonderful, with clever, deceptively-simple ostinatos and earnest melodies delivered in wispy vocals. But the release also suggests the new album is going to be more of what we got in the last albums – pleasant and dreamy, but absent, ironically, any hint of “shadows.” The music video comes again from Vikram Gandhi and Brendan Colthurst of Disposable, a firm with expertise in indie-tilted but finely-crafted and always-safe music videos. Their previous outing on “Sad Song”, featuring un-ironic, sweet footage of the trio baking cookies, seemed to capture the blissfully good intentions of the talented Brooklyn outfit. Here, though, the video seems to fixate on its crushes, alternately on the ladies, their vintage synths (just one more effects shot over the top of the JUNO-60), or both. It’s product placement for hardware that isn’t made any more.

I begin to wonder if all of this is moving us, the music fans and critics, into dangerous territory, tangled in indie cred and inescapable nostalgia. I expect some of you wonder why, years into an avalanche of releases with whisper-thin vocals of [boy/girl] atop vintage [square wave synth] and [lo-fi beat box] it would take me until now to come to this conclusion. I love Ms. John Soda and Lali Puna and the many other bands whose stripped-down style is close to Au Revoir Simone’s, but it seems by definition the sort of music that doesn’t need description or explanation or analysis. Yet, oddly, we have even more publicity for a band that seems not to need it.

Boys and girls alike can feel free to crush musically on Au Revoir Simone. In a gloomy world of sound-alike synthpop, the Brooklyn trio has forged their own, unique sound, a peerless breed of sensitive synthy goodness. The songs are relentlessly intimate and honest, genuine rock writing instead of overburdened pastiche. I think a lot of us growing up wanted to be able to sound like this, when we picked up that first electronic keyboard.

And yes, for keyboard lovers, there’s something really special about seeing three keyboards, with no guitars, no drums, and no boys in sight. Love the Beatles as I do, there was apparently some point in the 60s in which everyone decided we’d be stuck with one instrumentation and any females present would be vocalists only, but Au Revoir Simone is a sign of hope.

On my first listen, the new album “Still Night, Still Light” has more and more clearly polished ideas than any of their outings so far. I have to spend some more time with it, but I find it’s impossible not to just feel good listening to their work, and that’s a nice thing for music to do.

On to how you can grab the album: physical CD pre-orders and vinyl are available from the band’s website, but Amie Street has an absurdly good deals on the music, available right now:

Au Revoir Simone: Still Night, Still Light [Amie Street]

(and yes, apologies for those outside the US – if you spot deals in your neighborhood, let us know)

Update: Note that all four albums, including the new one, are also on emusic. (Thanks, zenzen in comments!) Emusic albums may not be available everywhere, but that could help you out in at least some parts of the world.

Amie Street uses flexible pricing based on popularity. When I picked up the album, it was at US$5.90, but that price will creep upwards as more people grab it. Here’s why it’s cheap, though: for 24 hours, you can subtract 25% off the price, and for some unspecified period of time, when you buy this album, you get the first three albums from the band free. In other words, you’re talking around six bucks for all four albums, as 320 kbps MP3s. I have no affiliate relationship with Amie Street and there’s no one from ARS’ PR and publicity calling me to bug me to say this. I just expect you’ll get a couple of bucks in value from each album. If you’re not sure, Amie Street has full streams of each album.

Now, keyboard spotting anyone? The Nord Electro 2 is always front and center, there’s a Novation BassStation, I think, the KORG microKORG, lots of drum machines… carry on.