[Listen] Cruiser - 'Cruiser' EP

While perusing Listen Before You Buy this morning, I came across a post introducing Cruiser, the solo project of twenty-sex year-old Andy States of Philadelphia. The post brought up an excellent point, in that as much as we as music bloggers want to listen to every music submission that comes through our inbox, it can be very difficult to keep up with that constant influx. But, as Cruiser shows, there are often some fantastic bands that sift through the mass of emails.

The moment I heard Cruiser's song "The Fritz," I was sold. It immediately reminded me of The Kooks, but after listening over and over again I found myself enjoying Cruiser much more than I ever did The Kooks. The catchiness of States' music is the result of eight years of hard work and demos, which eventually made their way into the hands of Jeremy Park, the man responsible for producing Youth Lagoon's fantastic debut LP The Year of Hibernation. The outcome of States and Park's work is the six-song Cruiser EP, a collection of tracks that are all to perfect for the summer ahead. Each song is full of depth that can be difficult to find even in bands with multiple members, but States pulls it off beautifully on his own. Melodic guitars build off one another, all the while carefree vocals drift along each catchy riff, making this the perfect beach-friendly soundtrack.

Cruiser's debut EP is available to download for the price of your choosing over at his Bandcamp page, and this comes highly recommended. Stream the EP below, and make sure to connect with Cruiser over on Facebook and Twitter.