Beliefs, Beat Happening, Kishi Bashi: Listen to the complete new albums

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KCRW’s Album Previews — helmed by Eric J. Lawrence — offer a chance to hear new album releases in their entirety each week, prior to and just after release.

Calvin Johnson (also co-founder of iconic indie label K Records) offered up his sonorous voice and un-self-conscious dance moves, while Heather Lewis held down the beat and guitarist Bret Lunsford kept things things chugging along. And although they haven’t performed together in about 20 years, Look Around is a welcome chronological survey of their best recordings, including the oft-covered “Indian Summer,” and a great reintroduction to an essential band of the 80s & 90s.


Their sophomore album, Leaper, ebbs and flows with varying levels of fuzzy guitars and driving rhythms. Song titles like “Ghosts,” “Morning Light” and “Swooner” might give a hint to the diaphanous sheets of sonic gauze that adorn their tunes but which never fully obscure the catchy melodies therein. And the perfect blend of their male/female vocals keep things modern. 25 years from now, when “dream pop” returns from a number of years of exile, it may very be records like Leaper that inspire the next generation of shoe-gazers.