The Loose Salute - Tuned to Love (2007)

In the wake of the amazing Fleet Foxes album, you might see this debut album from The Loose Salute as part of an emerging pattern of West Coast '70s rock influenced albums coming your way this summer. Elsewhere, there's Dr. Dog doing a similar thing, tapping into the Laurel Canyon sound of yesteryear too, but The Loose Salute make all that stuff sound considerably more palatable to mainstream audiences, folk rocking like a super-breezy meeting of Tiny Dancers, The Thrills and Magic Numbers, while messily combining templates set out by Buffalo Springfield, Brian Wilson (particularly on the opener 'Death Club'), all the while throwing a bit of 21st century power ballad know-how into the melting pot. This sort of fare really doesn't sound life changing in such a touched-up, glossed-over context, but crikey, it sure is nice; it's like stuffing your ears with Haribo, or possibky more accurately Haribo Sour Mix.